still with us, w the obvious caveat that parts of Ldn, and, to a lesser extent some other places in the southeast (the 'south' in the north vs south actually means the southeast/south central coast/southern Anglia, right, i've always taken it? it's more primate Ldn - wrt Pestario in the Fuck London thread - versus all regions that are not immediately in the primate's orbit, eg so Cornwall not just Tyne-Tees) have problems of poverty pretty much as severe as anywhere in the country, but given that parts of Merseyside, Mcr and Middlesbrough remain the most deprived wards in England and Wales (a list of the most deprived of the 9,000 odd wards that are the smallest political units of England and Wales reveals the ones at the bottom are overwhelmingly in parts of the Merseyside, Birmingham, and Mcr conurbations, parts of the northeast, parts of Hull, parts of Stoke and such, probably other parts of urban Yorks), and parts of Glasgow have the worst health stats in the country (AFAIK), and parts of Burnley have - AFAIK still, was last time i checked - the most inadequate housing in which young people live in the country as a per head thing, and one of the, i believe, Brum constituencies has the highest poverty rates of one overall parliamentary constituency etc etc etc etc
still, totally w you on the regeneration thing. Owen H has written some enjoyably bracing stuff on his blog of trips to the larger provincial cities and all that Urban Splash architecture that greets the visitor.
a lot of visible symbols of city centre regeneration in some cities that i know are thanks to EU funds TBH. i remember living in Stoke and finding EU poverty aid food cans in the larder of our new (rented) terrace. of course this was before the great eastward expansion of the union, it's been several years since i lived in Staffordshire. certainly many of the big baubles in central Mcr are stamped w the EU flag first and foremost.