The Government has been urged to provide extra support for cities outside London to deal with the cost of easing lockdown restrictions.
Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, also argued that city-regions should have formal input into the decision-making process as London is the only English city formally represented on COBRA.
He is calling for extra funding to run more public transport services to enable passengers to follow social distancing rules.
Mayor Burham also said that parts of the country with the highest number of Covid-19 cases should be prioritised for the introduction of mass testing and contact tracing.
Mayor Burnham, said: ‘The changes announced on Sunday night have major implications for our city-region but we had minimal advance knowledge and barely any ability to plan for them.
’Furthermore, I am not satisfied that the risks to the health of people here in the North West were fully considered before these changes were made. If we are to maintain a sense of national unity going forward, it is essential that the English regions are now given much more involvement in the decision-making processes.’
Photo: John B Hewitt / Shutterstock.com
