It will take "years" for some UK cities and towns to recover from the recession, a report by the independent think-tank Centre for Cities has said.
Areas with highly-educated workforces, including Cambridge and Edinburgh, are well-placed to bounce back, it claimed.
But locations including Stoke-on-Trent, Burnley and Newport are suffering because people there are less qualified and there are fewer business start-ups.
The gap grew between the top and bottom of the economics rankings, it added.
Hull had the highest percentage of people claiming jobseeker's allowance while Cambridge had the lowest - but the gap between the two places nearly doubled in that time.
'Tough outlook'
The study assessed 64 of the UK's cities and towns over the past two years and predicted an "uneven recovery" for them.
It said locations which already had robust economies were more likely to grow stronger, leaving the areas which did not have strong private sectors or good graduate skills further behind.
Full Article:
BBC News - UK cities 'will take years to recover from recession'
Hmm, not exactly ground breaking, areas with more highly trained workforce will recover quicker. I wonder how much it cost to set up the thinktank, maybe I could volunteer for the next one
