North's eyes on the Chancellor as he is set to unveil coronavirus recovery youth unemployment scheme

Mr Sunak will reveal a package of measures designed to help the UK bounce back from pandemic and mitigate what has been predicted to be a “massive recession” on an unprecedented scale.

But figures from across Yorkshire and North have said the region is ripe for investment due to decades of neglect and the government must avoid a “one size fits all” approach if they are to deliver on their levelling up promises.

Mr Sunak is expected to reveal a three-point plan for jobs, with a particular focus on the young.

The investment will include a £2bn kickstart scheme to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs for young people.

He is also expected to announce a £111m investment to triple the scale of traineeships in 2020/21, an extra £32m for the National Careers Service to provide tailored jobs advice to a quarter of a million more young people, and £17m of funding to almost triple the number of sector-based work academy placements this financial year.

On Monday Jim O’Neill, the vice-chairman of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the success of the levelling up project depended on young people, and that funding was desperately needed to address low levels of educational attainment in the North.

A study by the Education Policy Institute thinktank last year found the most persistently disadvantaged pupils were almost two years (22.6 months) behind their peers by the time they finished their GCSEs.

And the disadvantage gap in the North was far wider than the South, with poorer pupils in Rotherham trailing behind their peers by more than two years on average by the time they finished their GCSEs.

Mr Sunak said: “Young people bear the brunt of most economic crises, but they are at particular risk this time because they work in the sectors disproportionately hit by the pandemic.

“We also know that youth unemployment has a long-term impact on jobs and wages and we don’t want to see that happen to this generation.

“So we’ve got a bold plan to protect, support and create jobs – a plan for jobs.”

Focusing on young people will be welcome but director for the IPPR North thinktank, Sarah Longlands, said the North had been “especially vulnerable to the impacts of Covid-19 because we’ve been disproportionately affected by the UK’s deep regional divides and by a decade of Westminster’s austerity”.

It was reported yesterday how Hull faces the worst economic impact and the slowest recovery from coronavirus in the whole country, and other Northern spots have also suffered with significant jobs losses.

“That’s why our region’s eyes will rightly be on the Chancellor,” Ms Longlands said.

She called on the Chancellor to “trust support and fund local leaders to develop their own response and recovery”, an approach backed by Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis.

And she added: “A ‘one size fits all’ set of announcements might generate good headlines, but runs the risk of running roughshod over existing knowledge, capacity and experience in combined and local authorities as well as in Local Enterprise Partnerships.

“Whitehall needs to realise that it doesn’t always know best, and by working in partnership with local and devolved leaders, the benefits of the Government’s investment can be maximised.”

This was echoed by Roger Marsh OBE DL, chair the NP11, which brings together the 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) from across the North, who said: “The key point to make is that a distinctly regional response will be necessary for the UK to ‘build back better’ and to make full use of the structures and relationships that Local Enterprise Partnerships and devolved authorities have worked hard to establish.

“For the North, this means making levelling-up a formal treasury objective, giving localities the tools and funding needed, and future-proofing the transformational potential of our clean growth, exports, and innovation opportunities.”

Pressure is also building on the government to make good on its election promises to improve the lot of those living outside London, especially in the North.

Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a lobbying group representing businesses in the North, said: “Rishi Sunak as Chancellor, and throughout his time in government, has been instrumental at putting the Northern Powerhouse back on the government’s agenda, such as the proposed new line as part of Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines through Bradford.

“A number of key decisions may not come till the autumn, but we would hope that his choices today on short-term economic stimulus will be consistent with securing long-term value for the taxpayer, investing in both higher-productivity jobs and infrastructure which will contribute decisively to levelling up.”

Northern Powerhouse Partnership polling has shown northerners were overwhelmingly on the side of providing skills for those who lost their jobs and those leaving school, college and university.

Mr Murison said: “They wanted government to close the divide between those from the least advantaged homes and the rest. On these areas, progress has been made. But accelerating further the rollout of improved digital connectivity, boosting the ability for devolved areas to make £5bn more of local investment and better access for northern firms to patient capital will Power up the North.”