London (Parliament News) – Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham calls for a decisive break from austerity and urges early commitments to the Northern Powerhouse from the new administration.
What Are Andy Burnham’s Plans for Northern Powerhouse?
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has urged for a “decisive break with austerity” and an early administration promise to Northern Powerhouse. Burnham expressed on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme yesterday that promises to the Northern Powerhouse would “lay the foundations for a second Labour term,” adding “If people in the North of England see change come through in a Parliament they will adhere with this government for the long haul.”
Will Labour Commit to New Liverpool-Manchester Railway?
Burnham stated that would involve starting on a fresh Liverpool-Manchester railway, which he and Liverpool Mayor Steve Rotheram have been touting since the revocation of HS2.
He was also questioned about the two-child benefit cap. Burnham stated he understood Starmer can’t “just go out and make promises,” but said: “As and when, keep these matters under consideration, but we want to have a decisive break with the abstinence of the last 14 years, that has been so penalising for so many people in our country”.
Burnham also stated he would like Manchester to construct its share of the 1.5 million new homes pledged by Labour and that he wants a “large number” of those to be council homes.
How Does Unite Leader Sharon Graham View Public Service Needs?
Meanwhile, Unite leader Sharon Graham also conveyed the programme that people were “literally hurting” and that “crushing public services need money”.
Speaking on the same programme, new Business and Trade Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, the Tyneside-born MP for Stalybridge and Hyde, demanded that “decarbonisation is not deindustrialisation,” and stated job protection should be a condition of government investment, but also stated that government involvement in businesses would not be about “underwriting loss-making business in the way we might have thought about in the past.”
Moreover, The new Prime Minister, who directed his party to a landslide victory at the general election, pointed to the Manchester Evening News in January that he would perform ‘hand in glove’ with Mayor Andy Burnham. Last month, he also revealed to the M.E.N. that the Greater Manchester MPs in his top group- which includes representatives from Manchester, Tameside and Wigan – will be ‘powerful champions’ for the city region.
Sir Keir has now designated some of our MPs to the cabinet – including Ashton-under-Lyne’s Angela Rayner, who is the deputy PM. Labour now carries 25 of Greater Manchester’s 27 seats in Parliament with our MPs anticipated to lobby for the city region too. The Greater Manchester mayor has also called for the scheme to be stopped in areas where need for social housing is high. In its election manifesto, Labour stated that it would examine the Right to Buy scheme and improve protections on newly-built social housing.