Covid-19 has made the job of levelling up the UK much harder than it was a year ago. While the Government grapples with the economic and public health effects of the pandemic, many of the policies planned to grow cities’ and towns’ economies – from the devolution white paper to the Green Book review – have been postponed.

So what does the future hold for the levelling up agenda and the people and places it was intended to help?

To get a sense of this Andrew Carter spoke to local and national politicians from the two main political parties:

• Bridget Phillipson MP, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South and Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury