As the Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner prepares to open Labour’s conference in Liverpool on Sunday, she has today committed to deliver devolution across the whole of the North, turbocharging growth in Britain’s northern heartlands.
The Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government has confirmed that this Labour government “will be the government that completes devolution in the North”.
This week, Rayner announced agreements that have completed devolution in the four corners of Yorkshire. The Northern jigsaw has moved a step closer to completion in this next wave of devolution deals, with the new government minded to agree arrangements with Lancashire, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire.
She will criticise the former government for its lack of ambition, inconsistency, and delay in its approach to devolution, which Rayner says is down to the Conservatives’ obsession with Westminster-centric politics and “a sheer refusal to let those with skin in the game make the decisions about the place they live.”
At this year’s Annual Labour Party Conference, ministers will set out how they plan to fix the economy and rebuild Britain. They will repeat claims that the Conservatives left the country with a £22 billion black hole, wasted billions of pounds on headline-grabbing gimmicks, and beat the hope out of the country.
The government will also release this year’s funding for two Investment Zones, delivering high quality jobs and attracting private sector investment, focusing on advanced manufacturing in the West Midlands and life sciences in West Yorkshire.
Investment Zones have been established in a number of Combined Authorities in England, combining tax incentives and flexible funding for research and development, skills, business support, local infrastructure and planning.
Labour’s manifesto pledged to transfer power out of Westminster and into our communities, with landmark legislation to allow communities to take back control.
The Government committed to bringing forward an English Devolution Bill in the King’s Speech to deliver that manifesto pledge.
Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, speaking ahead of her speech opening Labour Conference, will say: “For 14 years, the over-centralised Westminster-knows-best attitude of the Tories left millions of people left behind, neglected, ignored, and invisible. Britain’s economy has been held back and dragged down by their failed trickle-down experiment.
“This Labour Government will harness the potential in our economy, handing power back and putting communities in control, so innovation and growth can bloom in every part of the country.
“Our devolution revolution will shift power away from Westminster, reigniting the fires of our economy, unleashing investment, and driving economic growth by trusting in our local leaders who know their areas best.
“I have seen how in my own patch, devolution has put rocket fuel under local pride. We have the power to do things in a Manchester-way, but we want to support other communities to do things their own way. This is about restoring trust in politics and respecting people with skin in the game to make decisions for their own area.
“We will be the government that completes devolution in the North. This shift will change the future of the North of England like nothing else. Northerners will no longer be dictated to from Whitehall. The change will be irreversible, there is no going back and I will get it done.”
Rayner plans to boost ‘devolution revolution’ with pledge to turbocharge the North
