The average house price in the city was £528,459 at the end of last year, compared to a national average of £271,000.
The gaffe drew criticism from leading Tories, including Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, who said it was “one of the strangest and silliest things I’ve ever heard from a politician”.
Jake Berry, the chairman of the northern inquiry group of Tory MPs, accused Sunak of “vatting[ing] about trying to channel vital investment away from disadvantaged areas”.
“He says one thing and does another – from raising taxes to trying to block funding for our Armed Forces and now raising the bar,” he said.
Sunak told The Telegraph that the furore was “very, very simple to clear up” and that there was “no problem” if the public scrutinized his record in government.
“What it was about was the way the Government identifies areas that are disadvantaged and then allocates funding according to needs and the way they did it until recently was very outdated and did not reflect the real need of the areas,” he said. to say. .