Devolution

 

The Northern Powerhouse

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, first introduced the idea of a Northern Powerhouse in June 2014 in a speech in Manchester. He said that the lack of economical and physical connections (roads and railways) between the cities and city regions in the North of England is holding back its growth with significant implications for the national economy.

Mr Osborne said he wanted to create a Northern Powerhouse so that ’not one city, but a collection of northern cities, sufficiently close to each other that, combined, they can take on the world’.

The Northern Powerhouse is made up of the areas served by the city regions of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, Hull and the North East as well as the rural areas of North Yorkshire and East Riding.

The main aims are to improve transport connections, support universities to make the North a centre of scientific research and to give more power and control of funding to elected Mayors and combined authorities.

There will be a new transport authority called Transport for the North, which will develop a long-term strategy for the region. This will include a plan known as Trans North to ‘transform east-west rail and road connections’.

The government has committed to delivering £7 billion in new transport connections across the region, which will include new trains on the East Coast Main Line, upgrade works on the M62 between Leeds and Manchester, the M1 between Leeds and Sheffield and fixing the bottlenecks on the roads in Yorkshire.

Devolution

In order to deliver this huge transformation of the North the Chancellor wants to devolve powers from Whitehall into the hands of local people and businesses.  An elected Mayor would lead each of the new devolved regions.

Seven deals have already been agreed (including Sheffield City Region). The first was the Greater Manchester Devolution deal and elections for the new Mayor will be in 2017.

The Government is considering twenty-nine more bids; include four competing bids for York and North Yorkshire.   

They are:

  • Greater Yorkshire, which would encompass North Yorkshire, York, West Yorkshire, the East Riding and Hull;

  • York, North Yorkshire and East Riding;

  • Hull, Yorkshire, Leeds City Region and the Northern Powerhouse

  • Leeds City Region (LCR) bid which would encompass the five Councils of West Yorkshire as well as York, Selby, Hamilton and Craven. 

The Government will have to choose between all these bids, but so far an announcement hasn’t yet been made. Indications are that business leaders and government would prefer to see a Greater Yorkshire solution but some local authority leaders in West Yorkshire are against this idea. 

Powers 

The devolved authority would involve increased powers over transport, housing, training and skills and EU funding. It could also include police and integrated heath and social care funding. 

Kevin Hollinrake’s views

Kevin believes that Yorkshire should unite behind the Great Yorkshire bid and warned of the dangers of allowing local politics to get in the way of a deal which could have huge benefits for the whole region.

He says: As a Yorkshire business representative, I am adding my voice to the current debate regarding devolution to the Yorkshire and Humber region and in particular to express my support for the Greater Yorkshire proposal. 

The final make up of a devolved Yorkshire will have enormous consequences for the business community and it is essential that the proposals present us with the means through which higher economic growth and a competitive advantage can best be achieved. The outcomes that we hope to achieve through devolution will only be secured through a unified approach across the region with the counties of North, East and West Yorkshire working collectively towards a shared economic goal.

The Greater Yorkshire proposal will give a strong voice to North, East and West Yorkshire, enhancing our ability to attract large private sector investment and opening up greater opportunities and potential for infrastructure and transport investment. A Greater Yorkshire comprising of these three distinct areas, will also help to create additional economic muscle, building on the inherent strengths of our industry and skills base to create a strong offer to international markets. 

The enormous benefits of a holistic and strategic approach to Business Development support across North, East and West Yorkshire will ensure that businesses have the opportunity to develop end expand and will no longer be constrained by small districts creating barriers to growth and development.  We need to be able to share our expertise across the Greater Yorkshire region and employ a combined approach that brings the different economies of our region together. The other devolution proposals for our region are too narrow in their geographical focus and context and so fail to take advantage of the opportunities that a Yorkshire-wide economic partnership would create.  

Our UK and international markets recognise Yorkshire as a distinct identity and an individual brand. If devolution is to be successful it is vital that it is based upon a geography that people can relate to and recognise and therefore devolution at a Greater Yorkshire level makes perfect sense. Only a strong, unified voice that sits across the whole of our region will be able to command public support and to engineer the strategic approach required to achieve greater inward investment and improvements to infrastructure across all parts of our region. This will ensure that Yorkshire takes its rightful place at the centre of the Northern Powerhouse.  

In summary, devolution based on the Greater Yorkshire model will help to create a global economic brand that can secure real economic benefits for our area. It will create a single, unified voice that commands legitimacy across the whole region. We are all proud of Yorkshire, and when people ask where we are from we don’t differentiate between towns or counties.  We only have to look at the success of the Tour De France, and subsequent Tour De Yorkshire to see how collaboration and a strong regional-wide voice can deliver a successful outcome. This is our strength - let’s build on that through continuing to work together across North, East and West Yorkshire.  

Some interesting facts

  • The Northern Powerhouse is home to 10.7 million people.

    25% live in the Manchester City Region and 21% live in West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

  • The Northern Powerhouse contains 4.5 million jobs, that’s 16% of all British jobs

    27% are in the Manchester City Region and 22% in West Yorkshire Combined Authority.

  • Over the last 10 years the Northern Powerhouse has had a far slower population growth than the rest of the UK. Between 2004 -2013 London grew twice as fast as the Northern Powerhouse

  • The Northern Powerhouse accounts for 13.3% of all UK’s Gross Value Added, compared with 24.5% that is contributed by London. The capital has grown nearly twice as fast.

  • The Northern Powerhouse has 23 universities; six of which rank in the top 20 research excellence nationally