Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of the Government's Levelling Up agenda on the creation of jobs to date.

The Government’s levelling up agenda aims to spread opportunity and investment across every region and nation of the UK. We are delivering this pledge by boosting jobs, wages and prospects for all communities.

We are supporting jobs, businesses and public services across the whole of the UK through Covid support schemes: so far, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme has protected 11.6 million jobs across the UK, including over 890,000 in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Furthermore, the Plan for Jobs has provided unprecedented employment support for people that need it the most, including the £2 billion Kickstart Scheme that will create hundreds of thousands of new, 6 month subsidised jobs for young people across the UK. To date, over 36,000 Kickstart jobs have been started by young people.