The government must ‘learn lessons’ from the Great Depression and the Second World War when it comes to rebuilding the country post-pandemic, a council leader has said.
Oldham’s leader Sean Fielding warned that the nation’s economic recovery will be dependent on public investment, or ministers will risk a repeat of the recession which followed the 2008 financial crash.
He said that despite the mounting financial pressures on town halls from coronavirus, he did not want them to scale back plans made before the crisis to invest £300m in the borough. “It’s about making sure that we invest in growth and don’t dial down our ambitions around our own investment plans because of the financial difficulties that we might face,” Coun Fielding said. “I