AS THE UK economy continues to take the impact of lockdown, Cumbria LEP outline the implications this may have on the county.

The first seven month of the lockdown also saw an almost unprecedented level of borrowing, estimated to add up to £214.9bn, which amounts to debts of up to £2tr.

Furthermore, the Government has borrowed at the sixth highest rate since 1993, in order to pay for the Covid lockdowns.

Jo Lappin, Chief Executive of Cumbria LEP, said: “At this point in time it is difficult to assess the timescales for recovery as there remains significant uncertainty.

The Mail: REACTING: Jo Lappin, Chief Executive of Cumbria LEP explains the impact on Cumbria REACTING: Jo Lappin, Chief Executive of Cumbria LEP explains the impact on Cumbria

“The UK economy had been recovering and seeing increased output to the end of August, driven by businesses re-opening and increased levels of activity as restrictions were lifted and the effect of government interventions, such as the VAT reduction and the eat to help out scheme worked.

“However, the increase was less than had been expected and the economy was still 9% smaller in August than it was pre-COVID.

“It is likely the effect of both local and the second national lockdown will have slowed the pace of recovery.

“There continues to be a wide range in the forecast overall contraction in UK economic output in 2020 on 2019, between 10% to 12%, and an even wider range on possible paths for 2021.

“The consensus of forecasts is that the economy will not have recovered the ground lost in 2020 during 2021.

“In short, the hoped-for V-shaped recovery is unlikely, and recovery will take some years.

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At this point in time Cumbria appears to be faring slightly better than other areas with unemployment standing at 4.3% compared with 6.5% nationally; vacancies bouncing back more quickly than in the rest of the UK and the use of furlough now lower than the national average.

“Clearly, there is no room for complacency, but the position is better than we feared it might be, when we had the highest take up levels of furlough in the country.

“In order to tackle the debt, there needs to be a combination of increased revenue and reduced expenditure. It will be interesting to hear the Chancellor’s plans for doing this in the CSR next week.”