The Mayor of Greater Manchester has told business leaders that there is a "strong chance" the region will be placed back into Tier 3 once the English lockdown comes to an end.
Speaking at a meeting hosted by the Institute of Directors North West, Mayor Andy Burnham said he was not confident that December 2 - the end date of the current restrictions - will see his region placed into the less severe Tiers 1 or 2.
Following a publicly drawn-out dispute between local leaders and the Government, the region was placed into Tier 3 on October 23, meaning a ban on households mixing in most settings, and pubs and bars not serving food being forced to close.
At the virtual event on Friday morning, also attended by Liverpool City Region's Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, Mayor Burnham said: "What happens after [the current national lockdown]? Do we remain in Tier 3?
"I think there's a strong chance certainly that Greater Manchester will be."
He said the '£20 per head' formula - the additional business support funding given to regions in Tier 3 that saw Manchester get £60m from the Government - "is now being given to every local authority in the country".
He added: "So there's no special treatment anymore for areas in Tier 3, and there's going to be no more if you go back into Tier 3.
"So I'm afraid this is still not right, and it's a levelling down agenda if you're not careful, because poorer parts of the country with a more fragile economy are getting restrictions but not getting support."
Referring to Friday's news that Prime Minister Boris Johnson's senior adviser Dominic Cummings is expected to leave his position by the end the year following days of reports about internal tensions at Downing Street, Mayor Burnham added: "Let's hope some of these changes are about to change the way the Government operates.
"There has been an aggressive approach to things, so I hope this is the start of a reset that will get us back to having proper conversations."
Mayor Burnham said much of the 'build back better' slogan for the North West following the pandemic will revolve around an "acceleration towards a zero carbon society", with a programme of retrofitting households with the latest technology to create "thousands of jobs".
Greater Manchester intends to be zero-carbon by 2038.
Mayor Burnham added: "If we go fast now on a greener Greater Manchester and North West will be bringing on the future for young people, creating jobs and skills that will be very exportable to other parts of the country.
"And it's not often that politicians in the North West have been able to say 'we can create thousands of jobs for a generation that will last them pretty much their whole life'. That's the opportunity that we've got."
