Jessica Bowles, Bruntwood director of strategy reacts to Boris Johnson spending pledges

“For our regional economies, it’s about powers as well as pounds. Further devolution is mission critical to ensuring the Government's investment in the recovery is effective and long-lasting.

“Many city regions, like Liverpool, Greater Manchester, Leeds and the West Midlands, have been preparing long-term recovery plans for how they’d use new funding, and flex existing funds, to create sustainable growth and jobs. Local decisions, with public and private sector working together, will guarantee a better return on investment.

“Infrastructure projects will catch the eye but previous commitments to areas like research and development expenditure - to help the UK meet the OECD average of 2.4% of GDP by 2027 - are vital to our long-term competitiveness but need to be rebalanced to regions with significant potential outside of the South East of England.

"If our regional towns and cities succeed the UK will succeed.”