LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris
Johnson on Wednesday announced a series of urban renewal
projects worth 830 million pounds ($1.2 billion) in towns and
cities away from London as part of his promise to "level up" the
country's economy.
Johnson, who won a 2019 election thanks largely to voters in
struggling regions of England and is facing pressure from
nationalists in Scotland and Northern Ireland, also said more
than 3,000 interior and business ministry jobs would move to
Stoke-on-Trent in central England, Edinburgh and Belfast by
2025.
"As the country gets back on its feet, the government has
renewed its commitment to levelling up and tackling the issues
that really matter to people," Johnson said in a statement.
Among the projects to get public funds are a new cinema and
food hall in northern fishing port Grimsby, a new performance
venue in Taunton in western England, and the conversion of
retail space into offices and hospitality venues in
Sutton-in-Ashfield, a former mining area in northern England.
A further 10 million pounds would be spent improving
teaching in four local authorities and a program to help
vulnerable young people would be expanded by 18 million pounds.
Gaps in economic productivity between London and other
regions of the United Kingdom were as wide as they were in 1901,
according to a report for the government last year.
The Resolution Foundation think tank said on Tuesday that
Britain lacked a plan to address Brexit, climate change, the
impact of the COVID pandemic and other challenges which could
weaken its economic performance to levels nearer those of
struggling Italy than Germany over the 2020s.
($1 = 0.7043 pounds)
(Writing by William Schomberg; editing by Michael Holden)