The leader of Leeds City Council has joined forces with other northern politicians to call for greater local responsibilities to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic and "reduce public confusion".
Cllr Judith Blake says she is "extremely concerned" about the rapid rise in cases across Leeds in recent days and has slammed the government's attitude to handling the crisis as "deeply concerning".
They want health secretary Matt Hancock to hand over powers to regional leaders rather than imposing local lockdowns from Whitehall.
In a joint letter penned by Cllr Blake and the leaders of Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool city councils, the quartet have devised a Five-Point Plan which they say will significantly improve the way coronavirus is being handled across the north of England.
All four leaders have seen their regions become subject to specific local lockdowns in recent weeks. Leeds' Covid-19 infection rate recently rose above 300 cases per 100,000, while Manchester (529.4), Liverpool (487.1) and Newcastle-upon-Tyne (434.9) are all among the top five most infected areas of the country.
'Confusing and counter-productive'
A joint letter signed by all four council leaders says: "We are extremely concerned about the sharp increase in new Covid-19 cases in the Core Cities and the national responses to these. The existing restrictions are not working, confusing for the public and some, like the 10pm rule, are counter-productive.
"All the Core Cities are similarly affected, but our four cities have recorded some of the largest recent increases. Although numbers were rising, the additional 16,000 cases that had previously been unreported nationwide are deeply concerning."
The Five-Point Plan proposes that "local knowledge" should be used to ensure city centres are not affected even more in the coming months.
Another key aspect of the plans is the suggestion that additional powers should be granted to immediately shut down venues that flout Covid rules.
The leaders want the following to be approved be government:
- Local decision making to agree additional lockdowns before they happen, and what measures are to be deployed between relevant services, with additional powers to take immediate action on non-compliance, for example closing premises. Lockdown triggers to include a broader assessment than just absolute numbers, and not to include further economic restrictions.
- A locally controlled Test and Trace system that is sensitive to local knowledge and needs of communities. This should include a joint planning response with local universities to provide effective support to students as part of containment plans.
- An improved Business Compensation Package to support those most affected. This will otherwise put at risk the Government’s ambitions to Level Up within this Parliament, as our cities stand to lose tens of thousands of jobs.
- Financial support for everyone who needs to self-isolate. Payment should recognise the additional support needs in our cities with higher levels of deprivation, and not be distributed on a per head of population basis.
- Improved monitoring of the impacts of the additional restrictions that have recently been put in place to understand their effect on Covid-19 rates.
Urging Mr Hancock to take the suggestions onboard, the leaders say: "It is critical to the future of our local - and therefore the nation’s - economic wellbeing that we look to work together to deliver a joined up and effective response for our cities and the country in the coming days."
