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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what action they are taking, in line with their commitment to level up regional inequality, to address the statistic set out in the report by City and Guilds Group Missing Millions, published in February, that 21 per cent of people in the North East felt positive about job opportunities in their area compared with 45 per cent of people in London.

This Government is committed to levelling up the country by creating opportunities outside of London. Of the £3.4 billion invested in Growth Deals across the Northern Powerhouse, £505 million has been awarded to the North East and Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas. The most recent report released by the North East LEP highlighted that jobs in the area have increased by 74,000 since 2014, which represents strong progress towards their target of 100,000 new jobs by 2024.