Chancellor’s economic update had welcome measures for Sheffield

He said: “Whilst rightly, there is a concentration on short term factors, there were welcome proposed measures to 'level-up' regions, which should be part of the regional development plan, particularly where productivity gains are concerned.”

He added: “The economic update needed to achieve three objectives for the Sheffield Region: one, adopt a flexible demand sided injection to the labour market; two, consolidate the devolution deal with a broader supply-sided 'level-up' infrastructural approach and three, promote confidence.

“This was an imperative fiscal event that could trigger the momentum needed for a Sheffield Region 'V-shaped' recovery.

“It needed to set the economic policy tone for years to come. Why? The economic effect is and could continue to be discriminatory across regions and across income distributions.”

There are three points to this, Mr Woodhouse added:

One, the economic hit is concentrated in sectors that make a huge proportion of local jobs: hospitality, entertainment, recreation, transport and non-food retail.

Two, there have been stark differences in the impact on families. Nationally, one-third of richer families have increased their savings during lockdown, while poorer families are more likely to have spent theirs.

Three, labour intensive sectors are seeing record levels of unemployment.

He added: “These three points cause an unbalanced setting for our local regions, particularly compared to others.

“The measures today were keen to pinpoint and challenge these issues. There were welcome demand sided measures targeted at hospitality and entertainment sectors in the form of VAT cuts and the innovative (well marketed) 'eat out to help out' voucher scheme.

“VAT cuts however cause saving first, then demand second, with the Chancellor needing to do more to support targeted consumption.

“Measures to promote continued employment were also welcomed, yet these will only be matched where demand and custom is buoyant. There is no economic consensus on the value of stamp duty cuts, with general evidence suggesting this inflates house prices even more. This is a huge social issue for the region moving forward.”

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