The Government is being urged to "wake up" and deliver on its promise to level up the county amid warnings Covid-19 has widened the North-South divide.
A think-tank has warned that unemployment could reach levels not seen since 1994, as the pandemic continues to trigger widespread job cuts.
The IPPR said a good life is becoming "increasingly unattainable" in many Northern regions and a decade of austerity cuts has deepened regional inequalities.
The State of the North report added that areas currently under Tier 3 restrictions including Blackpool and Middlesbrough are among the worst hit.
Sarah Longlands, the director of the IPPR North think-tank, which published the report, said: "The government was elected on a promise to 'level up' places like the North.
"But one year on, they don't have a plan to reduce inequalities between and within regions in England and the inadequate, centrally controlled, competitive 'levelling up' fund announced in the spending review simply won't cut it.
"Our regional divides are severe and growing, we face a climate emergency, and Brexit is just around the corner, so a recovery from Covid-19 that simply restores the status-quo - which has failed so many Northerners - would be unacceptable.
"We need to challenge old, reductive assumptions about our economy because they’ve failed to create the conditions for a good life for everyone in the North."
The report said rates of child poverty are higher in the North than across England, with one in three in poverty, the gender and ethnicity pay gap is wider and healthy life expectancy is below the English average.
Over the past decade, around a third of local authority areas in the North saw a fall in healthy life expectancy for men and just under three in five saw a fall for women.
Mike Hawking, head of policy and partnerships at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said the report highlights the "unacceptable" levels of child poverty in vulnerable parts of the UK.
He said: "We are seeing unacceptable levels of child poverty and shameful inequalities in health and life expectancy."
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The Government said its £4bn "levelling up" fund will "support the fabric of every life" including high streets and train stations and it is investing £100billion on national infrastructure.
A spokeswoman for HM Treasury said: "Recovering from coronavirus is the biggest challenge the UK has faced in living memory and we can’t shy away from the fact our national recovery will be difficult, but we are totally committed to levelling up opportunities across the whole of the UK as we build back better."
