The coronavirus business support fund should be extended – potentially taking an equity stake in business which they could later buy back – in a bid to boost the economy, city leaders have said.

The Core Cities has launched a policy paper outlining a ‘bold and radical vision' for how Britain's biggest metropolitan areas can aid economic recovery.

It calls for more business support, a phased return to economic activity by sector and enabling cities to create their own economic stimulus, such as infrastructure projects.

They have called on the Government to use the current crisis to re-imagine how communities and businesses can work in the longer term.

Chair of the Core Cities, and leader of Leeds City Council, Cllr Judith Blake said: ‘This is also an economic crisis, and we must start to prepare now to ensure a quick recovery in the future. Regional economic inequality in the UK, amongst the worst in Europe, will worsen without a fundamental rethink. 

‘The plans we had entering this crisis are not the ones that will see us through.  We need a bold and radical vision for a different, fairer economic future.

‘Our offer is to work with Government to deliver that, to do all we can to see our communities and businesses through what lies ahead.  But we need the tools to deliver, set out in our proposals.'