The North has been hit hardest by public spending cuts since the coalition government launched its austerity programme, while the South has seen an increase in funds, according to an in-depth study.
Total public spending in the North has fallen £6.3bn since 2009/10, more than any other region, think tank IPPR North concluded. The South East and South West, meanwhile, has seen a £3.2bn rise.
The study shows weekly pay has fallen by £21 in the North since 2008 in real terms, while two million working-age adults and a million children live in poverty. And many of the neighbourhoods with the lowest life expectancy are found in the North, including Salford, Bradford, Sefton and Sunderland and the neighbourhood with the lowest male life expectancy in England is in Blackpool, 68, compared to the England average of 79.
The North has also lost 300,000 government jobs since the peak in 2009.
On transport, London has received twice as much transport spending per head than the UK average or the North over the last decade, while London received 41 per cent of all Arts Council England national portfolio grant funding in the 2018-22 programme.
Director of IPPR North, Sarah Longlands said: "Many families depend upon precarious and poorly paid jobs and levels of healthy life expectancy in many areas constrain the opportunities of people to play an active role in their local economy."
Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, said, "This government promised us a Northern Powerhouse and Northern Leaders stand ready to work with them to close the North-South divide which pervades right across public spending, poverty rates and life expectancy. But, almost five years after the government promised us a Northern Powerhouse, we learn that public spending in the North has fallen while rising in the South..."
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