The majority of local leaders warn the prospect of economic recovery is poor over the next six months.

In a new survey of local authorities and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs), Lichfields found 85% of respondents said the chance of local economic recovery was either ‘weak’ or ‘very weak’ in the coming months.

It also found 70% wanted they did not have sufficient resources to effectively respond to the economic impacts of COVID-19 in their local area.

However, 88% of those surveyed have developed, or started to develop, a dedicated plan to guide economic recovery within their local area.

The insight states: ‘In most cases this considers emerging impacts of COVID-19 across the local economy (as far as these are known) and begins to identify key interventions or actions to address these impacts over the short term.

’Respondents’ priorities for guiding local economic recovery over the next 12 months tend to focus on continued business support, responsive skills provision, and enhancing critical infrastructure to enable local economic resilience (such as digital connectivity).’