Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to improve the record of the increase of new jobs in the North East.

The Government is committed to levelling up investment and opportunity across the country. We are working with partners across the North East, including both elected Mayors, where we have committed additional investment of over £1 billion in jobs and infrastructure.

We have also invested £505 million in Growth Deals with the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to improve economic performance, employment, and productivity across the region. This includes working with the North East LEP to create 100,000 additional jobs in the region by 2024. The North East LEP’s most recent report highlighted that the number of jobs in the North East has increased by 74,000 since 2014.