Rayner says it is payback time for the North as devolution ramps up
The deputy prime minister’s 40-minute speech at the Convention of the North outlined how devolution will drive growth and development and usher in “a new era of Northern cooperation”.
Addressing delegates at the Preston conference, Rayner hailed devolution legislation as a “generational transition from Whitehall to the town hall” and insisted that decisions for the North would now be made by the North, as well as touting £840m of extra funding for the region.
December’s English Devolution White Paper will give mayors the power to use new levers to drive growth and stimulate development, with Rayner conceding, not for the first time, that “change cannot be managed from Whitehall”.
Rayner cited powers to call in regional applications and announced the government would put more grant funding for regeneration and housing in mayoral hands.
When asked specifically about protecting a national budget for transport for use on large-scale projects such as the failed HS2, she said that though transport links are essential for growth, it would be up to local authorities to initiate and plan localised transport services.
She admitted transport “wasn’t easy”, that privatisation of the sector had failed, and added: “If people don’t have the transport links we won’t have growth, so we need to maximise the money in the system.”
She continued: “One of the departments that has been really receptive to devolution has been the Department for Transport.
“The secretary of state is keen to make sure that we use mayors and local authorities to understand transport connectivity.”
She added that an example should be taken from London, citing the role of local government in transport provision and stating the city’s transport network is “of a different world”, and represents “the ambition [regional] mayors should have”.
In addition, she indicated a tightening of the relationship between Homes England and mayors, suggesting that Homes England would transition to a more regionalised model.
To the deputy prime minister, mayors are both the “bedrock of [the government’s] industrial strategy”, and an “army to take on the blockers”. Rayner stated that they will now be backed by the government in their decisions.
This could mean emerging devolved areas like Cumbria and Cheshire – which have opted for a mayoral model – move ahead of others like Lancashire, which has not.
Devolution is only half of the plan for growth. Rayner said investment was also a key driver and floated examples such as the £200m mass transit investment in South Yorkshire and the Doncaster Airport plan.
She said: “If we get better growth then there is more investment in our public services.
“The government is only giving the North what it is owed and deserves.”
Words and words and yet absolutely no detail, no plans just the usual empty political rhetoric.
By Anonymous
The ‘North’ needs to take no lead from the disastrous inept transport policies of the Mayor of London
By Anonymous
Once again Lancashire in the slow lane , the need for proper single tier local government reorganisation is urgent!
By George
Angela and others need to realise that not everywhere up north has a housing shortage and places that don’t have one, don’t want a ton of houses being built on their green areas, especially when they’re way overpriced compared to the local housing stock.
By Rik
The London centric Homes England should be abolished and their budget divided between local mayors. Local Housing providers should no longer have to go cap in hand to the Homes England London office, it’s annoying and patronising.
By Anonymous
Rik – where in the North West doesn’t have a housing shortage out of interest?
By J Wood
If she is using London as an example of good transport management. Does this mean the Stockport born, MP for Ashton-Under-Lyne is going to give us equivalent financial investment? There goes another rib!
By Elephant
The so called levelling up is just lip service with scraps for the north. A classic example is the Railways.The government is about to hand TfL another £500 million just to help them along.
By Peter Chapman
As long as you are prepared to build extensively on green belt, then we will praise devolution and give you endless funding. But behave like Stockport, and you will end up failing to fulfill the central tenet of local government’s social contract – emptying the bins,
By Anonymous
Anonymous @ 12:57 has clearly NEVER been to London! Successive mayors (of both sides) over the last two decades have used devolution to deliver the best transport system in the country by far.
By Mancunian
“ she said that though transport links are essential for growth, it would be up to local authorities to initiate and plan localised transport services…. If people don’t have the transport links we won’t have growth, so we need to maximise the money in the system.”
Hmm, and how can local leaders plan transport when most of the money in the system for enhanced transport links is, as ever, directed towards London and the south east.
By Rayner watch
London has a great transport system, not sure what anonymous 12.57 is referring to.
By Anonymous
It didn’t take, “ Proud Northerner.” long to start spouting the London mantra did it. Put your money where your mouth is, talk is cheap and these sums of money are pathetic for 15 million people, as you well know. Leeds alone needs that sum for one tram line, so how is that going to suffice for everyone ? Crossrail 2 is already being whispered by this government. “Proud Northerner” has been seduced already by the bright lights of the capital and when this government is history, the only thing Northern about her, will be her Hampstead postcode.
By Elephant
@Mancunian I suspect Anonymous is making a misguided jibe at policies to relieve congestion. The main problem with copying London is that a) they have great population density b) much greater spending on transport (around double the national average per capita) and c) property values to support private sector investment in transport (the developers of Battersea Power Station contributed £300m to the new Northern Line spur that serves them).
By Nick B
Angela is very pro devolution and guess in time if she reigns long enough she will see the folly of too much power in the hands of one person (the mayor) and opt for Regional Parliaments. Regional Parliaments are a fully funded local government model to allow local people who understand their region to make the decisions. This also promotes growth. England suffers because it is one of if not the most centralised country in the modern world. It has left the regions deprived and concentrated most of our resources in the South of England. It continues now with HS2, Heathrow expansion and the Oxford Cambridge Ark.
By John P Hall
She’s a dyed in the wool southerner now, a tiny part of the machinery that always so ineptly actually runs the country through civil servants and unelected NGO’s. All she can do is pretend and spout the script she’s been given. There needs to be real revolution and realignment of that machinery. Nothing will change until that happens regardless of who is in power.
By Robespierre