What lockdown could mean for towns... a <thread>
Post-industrial and coastal places often have a bigger far right risk/ lower resilience – with more deprivation and a stronger sense of loss. This is why our work focuses on towns. 1/6

The economic risk of the lockdown is likely to disproportionately impact towns. But research from the first lockdown found that towns taking the biggest hit were different sorts of places. They weren’t necessarily those thought of as ‘left behind’. 2/6

The towns at risk in the first lockdown included the likes of Newquay, Whickham, Cleveleys and St Ives in Cornwall (according to @centrefortowns), or of Penrith, Colwyn Bay and Whitby (according to @tortoise). 3/6

While these towns differ, they weren’t necessarily the deprived industrial & coastal towns where we often work. As @theRSAorg put it, they were often “National parks, coastal towns and other tourist hotspots where the economy is geared towards hospitality and retail”. 4/6

This reflects what @EdConwaySky calls a ‘hand-shaped’ recovery: some sectors, people & towns flourishing unexpectedly, but others facing unforeseen struggles.
It means that the towns worst hit by COVID could be quite different from those usually earmarked for ‘levelling up’. 5/6

All our work shows that places facing sharp decline tend to be less resilient. A big risk of COVID-19 is that a new tranche of places join the list of struggling towns – creating unexpected challenges for their social fabric. There's lots more here: https://tinyurl.com/y6r4hjql