The Treasury would put far more energy and funding into boosting the Northern economy under a Labour government, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves has vowed, pledging to help towns such as Bury regain their hope.
Speaking to the M.E.N. ahead of a speech at Bury Met this morning, she said investment under a Labour administration would no longer be skewed away from areas because their economies were not yet thriving like London's.
She argued many people here currently feel more pride in their past than they have confidence in the future - but promised to restore that faith after a ‘lost decade’ of economic stagnation, adding: "“People want to see more stuff built and made in Britain."
Asked what the North would see from her Treasury if Labour were to win power, she said the ‘Green Book says no’ approach - a reference to government spending formulae that have historically tended to benefit places that are already doing well - would be replaced by a new philosophy.
“That philosophy of people working together - business, public and private sector - to make that step change,” she said.
“You need public sector investment to catalyse private sector investment, whether that’s in the climate, or in research and development, everything.
“This government has a very different philosophy, which is that you get out of the way and the market does it all itself.
“If it was as simple as that, levelling up would have happened years ago.”
Pointing to research and development funding, she said London and the South East currently account for more than half of all government spending.
“London and the South East gets 53% of R&D funding. What do you think the whole of the north gets? 16%. The whole of the North.”
A Labour government would financially boost existing attempts to get the sector going here, she said, such as Northern Gritstone, a partnership between Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds universities that is using private finances to fund innovation.
“Government should be getting behind this sort of stuff and catalysing it. We could do it at such a greater scale if it was a partnership between public and private.”
That also had to be a partnership with the local level, she insisted, through greater devolution.
On further education, mayors needed more power, she said, arguing leaders such as Andy Burnham currently have ‘bugger all’ control over post-16 education.
Bury, Barnsley, Norfolk and Cornwall all have different skills needs, she said, ‘yet everything comes from the government’.
“Government can just decide with the click of its fingers. ‘Northern Powerhouse Rail? I know we promised it but we’re not going to do that’.
“I’m going to be headed back to Leeds this afternoon, chug chug chug on the train. It takes forever, they’re overcrowded, they're not as frequent as they should be.
“Government is saying they’re going to increase capacity - well good luck with that without building a new train line. They promised us one thing and they take it away. And it is never the decision of local leaders.
“It might be an unusual thing but before I even get any power I’m saying I want to hand some of it away.”
That promise was also made by Labour at the last general election, with John McDonnell - who was pitching to be Chancellor at the time - also pledging to hand power over on day one.
But she said one reason Labour failed to convince the electorate was a lack of trust on public finances.
“I’ve set out a set of fiscal rules. All day to day spending we’ll pay for via tax receipts.
“We’ll get our debt share down as a share of the economy and if we do those sensible things then that leaves us with the resources to invest in our country’s long term future.”
Bury has been at the centre of much political attention of late, most recently the defection of Bury South’s Tory MP to the Labour Party this week.
Christian Wakeford made an appearance at Reeves’ speech at Bury Met this morning, although she insisted the timing of her speech was a coincidence. (“Some people think it was all planned but that credits the Labour Party with too much forethought.”)
But the town - which until this week had two Tory MPs with very marginal seats and still has one - has also been the centre of much government attention, with funding ploughed in to Bury Market, Gigg Lane and Radcliffe.
Labour knows it has to reach with the town's voters, she said, which was why she had chosen to make her speech there.
“We know we need to reconnect with voters in Bury North and Bury South if we’re going to win back their trust at the next election.”
Asked whether Bury’s economy - and those of other similar towns - depends on Manchester’s punching its weight, she said: “I don’t think we should pit towns and cities against each other. My philosophy - political and economic - is about bringing people together.
“People need real choice. Too many people are forced to move many miles from home to access good jobs and opportunities and people shouldn’t be forced to make those choices.
“There are so many opportunities I think at the moment in our country and we’re not seizing them properly.”
She said people had plenty to be proud about historically, but perhaps didn't have the same sense of zeal about the future.
“People want to see more stuff built and made in Britain," she said.
"Take Bury - its past, John Kay [inventor of the flying shuttle] and the invention and the ingenuity that came from Bury. We need the new industrial revolution to be curating, paying a decent wage.”
She added: "For some people, confidence in the future does not yet match pride in the past.
“And I want people in Bury to have as much confidence about their future as they do pride in the past.”
