Steven Broomhead is chief executive of Warrington Borough Council and writes a regular column for the Warrington Guardian

This is an important week for the Chancellor and the government given the warnings that have been given regarding an unemployment nightmare unless there is bold action.

The possible unemployment levels will have the most impact for those under the age of 25 and I hope that practical and swift measures can be put in place for anyone who needs support.

Every job loss or denied opportunity is a personal tragedy.

Stimulating consumer demand with temporary cuts to certain taxes with VAT is a likely target.

The expected job driven green investment is to be welcomed. All of this has to be done given the significant impact to the economy Covid-19 has produced.

There are many different medium term economic forecasts.

Firstly, if there is a second wave of the virus the recession could be W shaped. Another possibility is an O shaped recession where the economy falls rapidly but then slides around underneath and comes back up the other side.

There is also the dreaded L shaped economy where there is a quick fall and a lengthy time to recovery. Then there is a V shaped economy which most commentators including the Bank of England, predict where there is a rapid fall with a quickish recovery.

There is also an E shaped economy which falls with periods of economic stagnation and falls again. Finally, there is an S shaped economy where the economy slowly falls but ends up performing on a low level.

So this is the WOLVES economic analysis and any of these letters could materialise. If you mix up the letters, you end up with a LOVE WOLVES possible set of economic scenarios.

Our local economy is diversely structured and has consistently performed well above the national averages on growth and productivity to be able to better cope with any of these predictions.

However, we will not be insulated.

We will need the government who have done a decent job for employment protection, to make some bold decisions on further job measures and further state investment and de-regulation of “red tape”.

As long of course as this doesn’t mean more centralisation and the loss of local decision making as key decisions on areas such as regeneration, planning and skills development are best made by those who understand and appreciate their local impacts.

If the pandemic has shown one thing that is that centralisation of powers needs to be made more local.