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By ROB PARSONS - July 26 2022
An eye-catching use of public money caught your Northern Agenda Editor's attention as I was putting together the newsletter this morning. As the cost-of-living crisis rages, should a council in Northumberland really be spending thousands of pounds on “civic regalia” for the deputy mayoress and her partner?
Last week members of Blyth Town Council agreed to spend £15,000 on chains of office for the unelected position, despite managing without chains for the deputy mayor for the last 13 years.
Four Conservative councillors, one Liberal Democrat and two Labour councillors voted against the plans, but the rest of the Labour-led council voted to approve the spending.
The move has attracted heavy criticism from Northumberland Tories and Blyth Valley MP Ian Levy. He says it should be reversed and has set up a petition calling on the council to do so, as Local Democracy Reporter James Robinson writes .
The North remembers - but do Liz and Rishi?
It was a busy night for The Northern Agenda as this newsletter led a campaign supported by 16 news titles across our region yesterday urging our next Prime Minister to keep their focus on regional inequalities and not to turn their back on the North, with the hashtag #thenorthremembers on Twitter.
Titles as far afield as Cumbria, Hull, Oldham and Newcastle ran the same 'Don't turn your back on the North' plea to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss ahead of their first regional hustings in Leeds on Thursday and asked them to spell out their vision for Northern England .
The pair were asked about the issue last during the BBC's live debate in Stoke-on-Trent, where in response to a question from Political Editor Chris Mason they gave the appearance of being enthusiastic about living up to the promises made to the North as part of Boris Johnson's 'levelling up' agenda.
Ms Truss said she was '"completely committed" to the agenda and pledged "urgent action" if she won the race to Number 10, while Mr Sunak gave an "an unequivocal massive yes" to the policy. But details on how they'd achieve their aims were thin on the ground.
The ex-Chancellor said: "I think we can bring that same sense of optimism, excitement and opportunity across the country. That’s what levelling up should mean, it should mean that no matter where you grow up, you have fantastic opportunities to fulfil your potential."
As Westminster Editor Dan O'Donoghue reports , Leeds-educated Foreign Secretary Ms Truss was much bolder, saying there needed to be "urgent action" and pledged to roll out "low tax zones" to attract private investment.
Meanwhile Mr Sunak's successor as Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi insists neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak will “take their eye off the ball” as Prime Minister when it comes to levelling up the North East.
Mr Zahawi, who was put in charge at the Treasury after Mr Sunak’s dramatic resignation, said on a visit to Newcastle yesterday that “the mission remains the same, both candidates are committed to it”. Read the full interview with Local Democracy Reporter Dan Holland here .
'On public spending, the money didn't follow the rhetoric'
With perfect timing, a leading think-tank revealed today that public spending in the North has fallen behind the England average despite the Government’s promises to focus on left-behind areas.
IPPR North said that, despite the Government’s rhetoric, the levelling-up agenda has in many ways been “business as usual”. Per-person public spending was higher in real terms in northern England in 2019 than the England average, according to the analysis, but by 2021, the latest year of available data, it had fallen behind.
Although public spending has increased in every region of England, the think-tank said its research shows that in 2021 total public spending on the North was £16,223 per person, an increase of 17% on 2019, compared with the England average of £16,309 in 2021, which was an increase of 20%.
Marcus Johns, a research fellow at IPPR North, said: “On public spending, the money simply didn’t follow the levelling-up rhetoric. Although an increase in public spending on 2019 was welcome, and absolutely essential, spending is lower – and grew slower in the North – than in other parts of the country.
“At the same time, the country became more centralised and inequalities widened. This is because power is not distributed fairly in this country.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We do not recognise these figures and are pressing full steam ahead with levelling up the North." She cited the £96bn Integrated Rail Plan and the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund as examples of investment in the North.
The deeply-rooted issue that's held us back for decades
And in another indication of the challenge facing the North, new analysis shows that on the key measure of productivity London and the South East is 40% ahead of our region.
Broadly defined as the value created to the economy by the average worker, between 2004 and 2018 productivity increased 12% in London and 16% in the South East but only 4% in Yorkshire & the Humber, 10% in the North West and 9% in the North East.
According to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) this means in 2020, productivity in London and the South East was 23% above the UK average but the North's productivity was 12% below the UK average.
As our interactive map based on Office for National Statistics data shows, the majority of areas with better-than-average productivity are in the South East. The North has a handful, such as Cheshire and parts of Greater Manchester, but even our big cities like Leeds, Newcastle and Manchester are below the national average.
Henri Murison, Chief Executive of the NPP, said: “The North-South divide is a deeply-rooted issue which has persisted stubbornly for decades - and it’s holding growth back for the whole country.
“Higher productivity means higher wages and better living standards. If the next Prime Minister is serious about tackling the cost-of-living crisis and levelling up, they need to harness the huge untapped economic potential of the Northern Powerhouse to create better jobs across our regions."
Burnham: Court ruling gives North green light for bus reforms
Reform of bus services across the North can go ahead following the rejection of a legal challenge, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham claimed yesterday.
The Court of Appeal upheld Mr Burnham’s decision in March 2021 to bring services in the region under public control. Bus companies Stagecoach Manchester and Rotala challenged this, bringing a case against Mr Burnham and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
A High Court judge ruled against the companies in March, and the Court of Appeal rejected a challenge by Rotala yesterday. Read more about what it could all mean here .
Labour mayor Mr Burnham said: “This clear and unanimous judgment is another green light which means that we can now power ahead at full speed to deliver bus franchising across Greater Manchester as part of our Bee Network: an integrated, accessible and affordable London-style transport system joining together buses, trams, cycling and walking.
“And I hope that the unanimous rejection of this appeal paves the way for other city regions, such as Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire, to progress with their ambitions to bring buses under public control.”
But does Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer back the idea of vital services like rail, energy and water being taken back into public ownership?
On a trip to Liverpool yesterday , he said he was “pragmatic” about the question as conflicting statements by members of his shadow cabinet cast confusion over Labour’s stance on nationalisation.
The Labour leader indicated a retreat from a pledge he made when he was running for the party’s leadership in 2019 to support “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”.
But he was challenged about his view on nationalising utilities after shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves earlier said the policy was not compatible with the party’s new “fiscal rules” to control public spending.
Sir Keir yesterday sat down with the Liverpool Echo's Liam Thorp to discuss a range of topics, including giving his response to the anger and criticism he received when he decided to write for The Sun newspaper last year.
Read the full piece here . He also copped some flak from locals after one of his team misspelled the word 'Merseyside' in a tweet about a local radio appearance that's since been deleted.
In the short-term, there's going to be more rail disruption tomorrow thanks to the latest national strike by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers.
Operators such as TransPennine Express and Northern are calling on customers to only make essential journeys as the strike will have a significant impact on services.
Football's coming home...to Sheffield
When England meet Sweden in the Euro 2022 semi-final in Sheffield tonight, football will definitely be “coming home”, a new study says .
South Yorkshire's Steel City is the true home of the beautiful game, according to analysis published by one of the city’s two universities – which points to the city having the oldest clubs, grounds and trophies as well as being the place where many of the rules that shaped the way football is played were first formulated.
As thousands of fans descend for tonight's much-anticipated clash at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane stadium – the world’s oldest professional ground – Dr John Wilson, from the University of Sheffield’s Management School, has argued that Sheffield is to football what Lords is to cricket, St Andrews is to golf and Wimbledon is to tennis.
In research published in the Journal of Sport and Tourism, Dr Wilson has identified objective “authenticity indicators” that can be used to find the cultural home of sports, and applied these to football.
He said in the study: “This paper has presented evidence for its authenticity and acknowledgement as the original cultural epicentre and home of football using a range of cultural heritage dimensions.”
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Northern Stories
A village church in Newcastle has hit out at “underhand” council bosses after the local authority stopped cutting its grass . St Matthew’s Church, in Dinnington, claims Newcastle City Council has broken a decades-long pact to look after the churchyard free of charge and is now facing a hefty bill to cover the costs. The church’s vicar said the news came “out of the blue with no notice whatsoever” and that he was quoted £475 from the council for just four more cuts this year.
The leader of a council which has spent years seeking more powers has spoken of his hope that the government will agree a devolution deal on Yorkshire Day, following the passing of a key target date . North Yorkshire County Council leader Carl Les said he'd hoped devolution for the county and York would be agreed before the parliamentary summer recess last week, work was continuing to finalise a deal after almost 20 months of negotiations.
Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffiedld are among the cities offering to host Eurovision following confirmation that it will be held in the UK in 2023 . Organisers the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) previously decided the event could not be held in the war-torn Ukraine following the Russian invasion. The bidding process will begin this week, with the BBC and EBU jointly making the final decision on which city will host.
Plans for a £5 million bridge between Oldham and Tameside which would stand higher than six double-decker buses have been lodged . Oldham council has submitted an application for the 128 metre-long bridge across the Medlock Valley in Park Bridge. It would run along the route of a historic brick railway viaduct and is aimed at making the borough easier to traverse for cyclists and walkers.
Yorkshire-born rail minister Wendy Morton was greeted by MPs, businesses and education leaders as they set out why York should be crowned the home of Britain’s railways. Ms Morton is visiting all six places shortlisted to become the headquarters of Great British Railways, which will oversee rail infrastructure, ticket prices and timetables. During a two-hour visit to York yesterday, she was shown around the station, the Aviva building and the Hudson Quarter, on the original site of York’s first permanent railway station.
Plans for a hard stone quarry just 700 metres from a quiet Northumberland village have been branded “madness” by one of the area’s most famous sons . North East Concrete has requested planning permission to extract four million tonnes of dolerite from a 28.7 hectare site near Kirkwhelpington. Greg Wise, who starred in the 90s classic Sense and Sensibility and featured on Strictly Come Dancing last year, was brought up in Kirkwhelpington. He said the “beautiful” area was “under threat” from the quarry plans.
