North West England

Of the nine regions of the England, the North West has the fourth-highest GVA per capita—the highest outside southern England. Despite this the region has above average multiple deprivation with wealth heavily concentrated on very affluent areas like rural Cheshire, rural Lancashire, and south Cumbria. As measured by the Indices of deprivation 2007, the region has many more Lower Layer Super Output Areas in the 20% most deprived districts than the 20% least deprived council districts. Only North East England shows more indicators of deprivation than the North West, but the number of affluent areas in the North West is very similar to Yorkshire and the Humber.

The most deprived local authority areas in the region (based on specific wards within those borough areas) are, in descending order—Liverpool, Manchester, Knowsley, Blackpool, Salford, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rochdale, Barrow-in-Furness, Halton, Hyndburn, Oldham, Pendle, St Helens, Preston, Bolton, Tameside, Wirral, Wigan, Copeland, Sefton, and Rossendale.

In 2007 when Cheshire still had district councils, the least deprived council districts in the region by council district, in descending order, were—Congleton, Ribble Valley, Macclesfield, and South Lakeland. These areas have Conservative MPs, except South Lakeland has a Lib Dem and Labour MPs. At county level, before it was split into two, Cheshire was the least deprived, followed by Trafford, and by Warrington and Stockport.

In March 2011, the overall unemployment claimant count was 4.2% for the region. Inside the region the highest was Liverpool with 6.8%, followed by Knowsley on 6.3%, Halton with 5.5% and Rochdale with 5.1%. The lowest claimant count is in Eden (Cumbria) and Ribble Valley (Lancashire) each with 1.3%, followed by South Lakeland with 1.4%.

The Mersey Forest is a network of woodlands and green spaces being created across Merseyside and North Cheshire by a wide-ranging partnership of different organisations including local authorities, community groups and businesses. The Mersey Forest is the biggest of twelve community forests covering 420 square miles (1,100 km²) and accessible to a local population of 1.6 million people. It stretches from Sefton to the north of Liverpool and south to Northwich in Cheshire. Delamere Forest in the south of the area being the largest area of established woodland. The forest is seen as having a major role in attracting new business and tourism to the area.

In common with the other community forests it is not a contiguous area of forest, but rather an initiative to increase forestry coverage in an area close to urban communities. An example of this at work is Griffin Wood, clearly visible from the M62 just to the south of St. Helens. This woodland was established in 2007, including Scott's Copse, planted in recognition of the work done by David Scott.

Passengers at Liverpool's John Lennon Airport are able to offset the carbon used on their flight. The money raised is matched by the airport and used by Mersey Forest to plant new trees.

The forest falls within the area of the proposed Northern Forest.