Leader of Bradford Council Susan Hinchcliffe has announced plans for a new Northern Powerhouse Rail station in the city centre to open in 2030.

Her announcement comes as civic and business leaders from across Yorkshire and the North are urging the government not to break its promise to voters by scaling back Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) through Bradford, the first step towards a high-speed network across the Pennines from Leeds towards Manchester.

Cllr Hinchcliffe reiterated the case for why a new station could unlock the full potential one of Britain’s youngest, most diverse and fastest growing cities.

The line from the NPR station in central Bradford to Leeds would underpin an integrated urban area larger than Birmingham, with a labour market of over 1.3 million people and more than 600,000 jobs.

It would increase annual GVA by £2.9 billion by 2060, an uplift equivalent to a third of the districts economy as it stands today and creating 27,000 extra jobs.

The current 25-minute journey to Leeds – which is so unreliable that 70% of commuters still choose to drive – would become no more than an easy tube journey is in London.

Since then, the government has made repeated commitments to deliver the project in full, including the speech by the Prime Minister in the Power Hall in Manchester, where the commitment to build a new line from Leeds to Manchester was first made.

Susan Hinchcliffe, Leader of Bradford Council, said:

“Bradford is one of the fastest-growing, youngest and most diverse cities in the country. It is brimming with talent and potential. 

“The Prime Minister has committed to Northern Powerhouse Rail, and this early stage of the line from Leeds to here could see real progress made by making us the equivalent of only a short tube ride apart, a critical step to the full network to Manchester and on to Liverpool.

“Our vision for Bradford is bold. A new rail station built in a decade with an extended city centre that will help us become better-connected and more prosperous.”

Lord Jim O’Neill, vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said:

“The Northern Powerhouse Rail project from Leeds to Bradford across to Manchester, travelling on to Manchester Airport and Liverpool, is vital to the long-term goal of raising productivity and building a thriving Northern Powerhouse. 

“It is now critical we get spades in the ground on the new line, building a new station for Bradford and building the tracks to Leeds to get faster, more reliable, more frequent services. 

“Building stronger links between Bradford and Leeds will unlock agglomeration benefits for both cities, with a population and labour market larger than Birmingham. 

“Once we have built forged stronger connections between city regions across the Pennines, the North can act as a genuine counterweight to London and the South East.”

Professor Zahir Irani, chair of the Bradford Economic Recovery Board and deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Bradford, said:

“As well as a recovery post Covid, we need to start thinking long-term about building an inclusive and, sustainable future for Bradford that benefits all.  

“Linking the city centre to other great northern cities such as Leeds and then to Manchester in the West through Northern Powerhouse Rail would provide vital economic stimulus, unlocking the significant expansion of the city centre.

“An innovation district, directly made possible by the new station extending the city centre, will enable the strengths we have in higher education and health innovation to be brought together where we have world class capabilities.”

Jim McMahon MP, shadow transport secretary, said:

“We first heard the idea for a new high speed rail link across the Pennines in 2014. More than five years later, we’re no closer to getting it – yet another example of empty promises from Government.

“If ministers are serious about helping every region of the country rebuild, that means delivering HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail in full, including direct city centre links between Leeds, Bradford and Manchester.

“Labour MPs and mayoral candidates like Tracy Brabin are fighting tooth and nail to make sure these projects happen to deliver real change to communities in the North. “

Photo credit – Tim Green

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by Tom Bridges, Arup Leeds Office & UK Cities Advisory Leader and board representative to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

A well-connected, functioning transport system is the foundation of any successful economy. When people and goods can move around more easily, workers can reach better-paid, more skilled jobs – and businesses can access a much larger talent pool and range of markets. This attracts investment, which in turn stimulates growth, regeneration, enterprise and innovation.

This theory of agglomeration is one of the core principles of the Northern Powerhouse. Construction has not yet started on HS2 to Leeds, yet business confidence in the city has soared due to high-speed rail acting as a magnet for businesses looking to capitalise on a huge labour market.

This success has not been shared by its nearest neighbour, Bradford. Bradford District’s productivity stands at only around 70% of the national average, with government spending far outweighing tax contributions. Despite being between two of the North’s most prosperous cities, Manchester and Leeds, Bradford’s poor connectivity means its talent is hidden away, locked out of neighbouring labour markets.

Linking Bradford into an integrated high-speed rail network that runs north to south, east to west across the country would change that. On Monday, Bradford Council launched plans, informed by work by Arup, for a Northern Powerhouse Rail station built at St James Market in the city centre by 2030, backed by experts and business leaders from the North. The new station will integrate the new rail route with faster local rail services, bus, mass-transit, new walking and cycling routes and green corridors to spread the benefits and connect with the wider city centre and nearby neighbourhoods.

Building the first stage of Northern Powerhouse Rail through Bradford city centre to Leeds could create a labour market of over 1.3 million people and over 600,000 jobs. Once the full line is complete, it would add over half a million people to labour markets in West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester.

Improved frequency, better reliability and shorter journey times would transform the landscape of opportunities for young people growing up in Bradford, unlocking the regeneration of the Southern Gateway area and developing the city’s assets in health innovation, higher education, manufacturing and clean growth.

New rail links are a catalyst for the transformation of cities in Europe. Before the opening of the TGV Nord in 1994, Lille had been in decline due to the restructuring of traditional textiles and manufacturing industry. The new city centre station paved the way for major station-orientated regeneration, a local mass transit system, and a transformation of the city’s cultural offer.

Bradford has an equally coherent strategy for transport to unlock place-shaping and growth on a city scale.

Locking Bradford out of the high-speed rail network would mean writing the city off for decades to come. It would mean ignoring the huge economic potential of one of the youngest, fastest-growing, most diverse cities in the country.   

This isn’t about throwing money at the problem, expecting nothing back in return. It’s a serious economic argument about targeting investment to address the structural problems that are holding Bradford back from growth – growth that would allow it to add the overall UK economy, not take from it.

Levelling up – real levelling up – will require a radical transformation of the North’s transport network. We need the new NPR line to connect Bradford, Leeds and Manchester. We need it to go all the way to Liverpool and to Hull. We need it to better link the North East. And we need it to link into the eastern leg of HS2, as part of a green transport revolution.

Change may not happen overnight but a phased approach that allows us to maximise benefits for local communities as soon as possible is the right one. This is the most effective way to bolster the connectivity needed to share prosperity across the whole of the North, rather than concentrating it in a few large cities. Our vision for the Northern Powerhouse is an ambitious one. We don’t just see problems – we see potential. We can’t afford to let cities such as Bradford get left behind.

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By Debbie Francis, City Executive for the North at Arcadis and board representative to the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

The spread of Covid-19 has drastically changed how communities live, travel and behave. From breaking old certainties to the acceleration of new trends, it has forced us to quickly adapt to new ways of living. While some of the longer-term effects may take years to be fully understood, there is a now a pressing need for action to rebuild our economy and level up. We must work to understand the new landscape and the opportunities it could bring across our great Northern Cities. Most importantly, we have the chance to radically re-think how we view our communities and live our lives.

Stronger communities

Stronger communities need to be at the heart of the government’s ‘levelling-up’ agenda. This must involve a renewed focus on the principles of community wealth building, rolled-out successfully in Preston, and the ideas around a ‘15-minute community’ to improve health, homes and mobility. More than ever the private sector has an essential role to play supporting local authorities in managing these challenges and delivering stronger communities. It is critical we do not forget the placemaking opportunities associated with major rail and station investment, as seen at London Kings Cross-St Pancras. This project involved £2.2billion of private investment including new offices, jobs and homes in the area. We want to see this kind of regeneration replicated in our northern cities.

Developing skills and training also remains critical if we are to meet the levelling-up agenda. Major rail investment addresses the government’s post-Covid recovery by protecting jobs, upskilling young people and kickstarting the economy. HS2 alone requires 30,000 people to design and build the railway, as well as 2,000 apprentices.

Engineers of the future

At Arcadis, we are working with schools to help them transform how they deliver their educational courses to achieve better outcomes. For example, our colleagues have been providing voluntary support to skills and educational programmes in Bradford through the Ahead Partnership, to ensure the future labour force is equipped with the necessary skills. This targets schools within some of the most deprived areas of the city and is an effective way in increasing attainment, raising aspirations and improving inclusivity. The entrepreneurial and technology skills being nurtured in Bradford will support a more dynamic local labour market that works for all.

It is important to remember the economic and social sustainability benefits that come with major rail projects. Northern Powerhouse Rail, for instance, would bring 10 million people within 90 minutes of major Northern cities, improving connectivity and job opportunities. HS2 is integral to the governments’ Industrial Strategy, designed to increase economic growth, create careers, and secure investment. In Leeds alone, HS2 Growth Strategy will pump an extra £54billion into the regional economy while in Middlesbrough, the local college had the foresight to invest £20million in STEM training centre to capitalise on the scheme. Hundreds of students are already getting the hands-on experience they need to excel in well paid careers in professions such as civil engineering, electrical engineering and construction management.

The climate emergency

We also can’t forget the climate emergency. The pandemic may have taken it off the front pages, but it will be back with bigger and bolder ambitions. As we look to forge a successful post-COVID recovery, it is crucial we all embrace the opportunity and not only build back better, but build a healthier, greener and more inclusive society.

New infrastructure should be done in a way that not only reduces carbon impact, but in a way that actively contributes to wider and longer-term carbon reduction. While we need to be very mindful of the construction and operational impacts. HS2 must form a crucial part of the transition to net zero. We need to see a shift to low-carbon mobility, and HS2, as a high capacity fully electrified railway, is key to this.

This must be achieved through a shared recovery between local authorities and the private sector. Tackling these challenges successfully is going to be complex and will take time, but we have a once in a generation opportunity to rise to the challenge. Further devolution to empower stronger communities is integral to bridging the North-South divide.

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By Andrew McPhillips, Chief Economist at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

On the surface, this week’s Budget appeared fairly innocuous. Many immediate measures were welcome: the extension to furlough until restrictions are (hopefully) lifted, as well as an (albeit temporary) extension to the £20 uplift for Universal Credit.

Tax rises will not be immediate either. The freezing of the thresholds for income tax will begin next year for five years, while corporation tax increases are delayed for two years. Measures including the extension to business rates relief and the lower VAT rate in the hospitality sector will reassure those businesses hit hardest by the pandemic.

A ‘super deduction’, which allows businesses to reduce their tax bill when spending to invest, is another good idea. It may just bring forward investment from later years rather than increasing total investment – but a boost to economic activity in the near term is what is really needed right now.

Of more interest to many here in the North, however, was the news of an economic campus by HM Treasury in Darlington and a new UK Infrastructure Bank in Leeds. Not only will these incentivise more businesses into ‘Northshoring’, it is a positive step to see a sizeable chunk of decision-making move out of the Whitehall bubble.

However, as the dust began to settle, eyebrows were raised over the criteria used to award funding to ‘level up’ a number of towns and cities across the country. Firstly, £1bn from the Towns Fund was allocated to 45 places across the country with the majority of awards in the £20-£25m range. There are two major problems with administering funds such as these. The first is to resist the temptation to try and give everybody a piece of the pie. The second is how to justify who receives funding and who doesn’t.

Many places that won funding were those you’d expect to see – particularly if you spend time looking at local economic data. A large number were in the so-called ‘Red Wall’, made up of ‘left-behind’ areas where economic disadvantage is high.  Many of these constituencies voted Conservative for the first time at the last General Election – which, in part, explains why there was such a sizeable majority of successful areas served by Conservative MPs. It does not explain, however, the five Conservative areas, scored as ‘low priority’, which were still allocated funding.

But where Rishi Sunak faces greatest pressure is on the Levelling Up Fund, a near £5bn fund to invest in high priority infrastructure projects. The Budget ranked each local authority according to need, from Priority 1 (greatest need) to Priority 3 (lowest need). For some bewildering reason, the Treasury did not release the methodology used to prioritise areas – promising it would follow ‘shortly’.

This again left the Chancellor open to claims of playing politics with the allocations. His own relatively affluent Richmond constituency was placed in Priority 1 when others such as Barnsley and Salford were placed in Priority 2. This detracted from an otherwise positive announcement about significant investment into northern regions. 

Leaving aside the arguments about who is receiving what, we are still some way off having a coherent plan for devolution. We’re yet to see the long-promised government white paper on how power and funding could be put in the hands of local leaders, who know where it can be used best. Concerns that levelling up is no more than a soundbite are not helped by continuous delays to important announcements on the future of transformative projects such as the Eastern leg of HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail.

Building a successful, productive Northern Powerhouse will not happen without a plan for structural change and devolution. Let’s hope we see it at the next fiscal statement in autumn.

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By Henri Murison, director of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

The campaign for a Mayor in West Yorkshire has begun. Both candidates will need coherent, innovative ideas on how to tackle our most pressing challenges in the months and years to come: economic recovery, decarbonisation and solutions for entrenched inequalities.

My plea to all those in local government is to remember our campaign for greater devolution has been hard-won. Now that we have some of the tools to build a better future for our region, let’s not squander them.

The intricate process of decentralising power away from Whitehall began under then-Chancellor George Osborne and Lord Jim O’Neill in the Treasury. Starting in Greater Manchester, it spread as far as Sheffield City Region but then stopped in its tracks in Yorkshire.

In those areas able to secure devolution deals, Labour civic leaders and the government put aside their differences to commit to invest in long-term priorities.

Improving social mobility or investing in better rail services isn’t partisan, it’s a no-brainer. Whilst Westminster thrives on gladiatorial contests between right and left, leading cities and regions requires a more mature approach – one able to reconcile opposing political factions in the pursuit of the greater good.

Local leaders need strong principles, good judgement and boundless energy. They need to be capable of reaching across party lines to deliver real change to local people, avoiding any instinct to land a political punch on the other side.

Steve Rotherham and Judith Blake, soon to became Baroness Blake once she joins the House of Lords, are just two of our great political leaders here in the North. There are tough times ahead and we need leaders such as them to make the case for further investment across the Northern Powerhouse.

Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and Greater Manchester Metro Mayor Andy Burnham

However, while we are clear that more funding is needed in areas such as education and large-scale transport infrastructure, our real goal is to reach a point where we are not reliant on Whitehall hand-outs.

Once the North’s productivity has drawn in line with the rest of the country, and once we have real power over local decisions, we can take control over more of the taxes. This would not mean increasing tax overall, simply restructuring how it is raised so that we can align investment decisions with future returns.

Taxes should raise funds to unlock growth, later capturing the monetary uplift generated as a result. Taxes used to fund local services and investment must be overseen locally, replacing the outdated and unfair Barnett Formula.

Again, this requires grown-ups at the table to make reasoned judgements on how our priorities are ranked and paid for – not engaging in spats over unrealistic demands for the sake of short-lived popularity. The Chancellor, himself a fair and reasonable decision-maker, can spot those serious about real economic growth from those just in it for the glory.

Our current funding and powers are nowhere near enough to recover economically. Nor will they be enough to deliver the sorely-needed transport upgrades to boost connectivity, such as a new rail line from Leeds to Manchester, through Bradford. Once again, we find ourselves in a situation where our future depends on politicians in Westminster.

This forces us to start thinking creatively about ways to generate money, such as a road user charging system to replace fuel duty, once the electric car makes it irrelevant.

Megaphone diplomacy cannot and will not secure a recovery. Real leadership isn’t about lobbying for more money – it is about making the case for why an investment will pay dividends for local communities (and the taxes they raise) later down the line.

The North is on the up. Invest in us now, give us more powers over local decisions – and reap the reward in years to come.

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Over 100 major business leaders from across the North and Midlands have written to the Prime Minister ahead of the Integrated Rail Plan to get commitment that HS2 will not be downgraded, in light of rumours that parts of it will be scrapped. 

The full letter reads:

Dear Prime Minister,

Amid the Covid crisis, there is a decision looming about the most significant infrastructure project ever seen in this country. The future of HS2 is critical to the North and the Midlands.

A failure to deliver it in full, all the way to Leeds via Toton and Sheffield, would be a massive missed opportunity to create hundreds of thousands of jobs, attract major investment and stimulate huge economic growth to create a more balanced, fairer economy. Moreover, it would leave your flagship levelling up ambition in tatters.

In February last year, you committed to delivering HS2 in full. The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) was then tasked with investigating how best to integrate HS2 Phase 2b with other projects, including Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) and Midlands Engine Rail (MER), as well as upgrades to the existing network. The NIC failed to do this – instead pitching projects against each other, suggesting cutting the Eastern leg through the East Midlands and Yorkshire and onto the North-East. Sacrificing parts of the network of new lines now would short-change millions of people across this country who after years of waiting would be left with a second-class service.

As business leaders, we are clear – the scale of the opportunities a High Speed North and Midlands network would create are only possible if HS2 is delivered in full. While we are heartened to see the progress that has been made on the Western leg, the commitment to the Eastern leg is far less apparent since HS2 Ltd stopped work on it over a year ago. On the East, the delivery of HS2 and supporting investments would lead to approximately 150,000 additional jobs in Leeds City Region, Sheffield City Region and the East Midlands region. Each year of delay costs the North & Midlands £4.9bn – growth is being held back by uncertainty.

The growth strategies of Leeds City Region and Sheffield City Region, both with HS2 at the heart, would provide more than £70bn to those city region economies, with the potential for almost 10,000 new homes and more than £5bn of private sector investment. Toton would be home to a state-of-the-art Innovation Campus; bringing together universities, start-ups and established businesses, creating up to 10,000 highly-skilled jobs and a network of surrounding garden villages. Critically, though, those benefits are lost if Toton is not connected to routes North – to Sheffield, Leeds and on to the North East, as well as opening up opportunities to an international market for Global Britain.

These transformational regeneration and growth opportunities do not come along very often. Major investment in infrastructure, which the North and Midlands have not seen since the Victorian era but has been delivered in London and the South East, would be the catalyst for a North as prosperous as London; the Midlands rivaling the South East for productivity and job creation. It is not just those towns and cities on the route. HS2 and NPR are essential to increase capacity and create better rail connections in places like the Humber, Teesside, Lincolnshire and the North East.  

As businesses, connections with our market, suppliers and exporters are very important. HS2 will link our great towns and cities in the Midlands and North contributing to local, regional and national prosperity that will be at the heart of a strong Global Britain. Private sector investment is crucial to realising the benefits of infrastructure. After suffering from decades of underinvestment, HS2 and regional transport plans will be the catalyst for greater flows of private investment, already coming forward but which risk being pushed back with growth cut in the construction sector.

The Integrated Rail Plan is your chance to move on from Covid to what the future of the UK should look like. Levelling up parts of the country that have seen traditional and considerable underinvestment, and that would benefit from a plan for growth. The opportunity to reaffirm your commitment to HS2 in full is within your grasp. Businesses in the North and the Midlands stand ready to capitalise on the opportunities an integrated high speed network would provide and help rebuild the economy. This decision is vital to the future of this country, and it rests with you now.

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The Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) has today [Thursday 17 December] announced the appointment of seven new office holders and board members, including leading UK industrialist Professor Juergen Maier as vice-chair.

Maier left his role as Chief Executive of Siemens UK last September after 33 years with the business, and now serves as Chair of the Digital Catapult. He also co-Chairs Made Smarter and serves on the Industrial Strategy Council which advises the UK Government on Industrial Strategy. 

Chancellor Rishi Sunak met with senior business and civic leaders from the NPP today to reaffirm the Treasury’s commitment to levelling up and to discuss priorities for driving the Northern Powerhouse agenda.

Sharon Watson, who became CEO and Principal at the Northern School of Contemporary Dance in May this year, also joins the board. Watson is one of the leading figures in arts and culture in the North and was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of West Yorkshire in November.

Two of the North West’s biggest businesses are also joining the partnership, with both Co-op CEO Steve Murrells and TalkTalk CEO Tristia Harrison announced as board members, alongside Drax CFO Andrew Skelton.

Taking over as Chair of the Education and Skills Committee will be Andrea Delay, MD and UK Head of Business & Professional Services at Barclays Corporate Banking.

Leeds City Council Leader Cllr Judith Blake will be replacing Sheffield City Council Leader Cllr Julie Dore, one of the founding members of the partnership. 

Chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership George Osborne said:

“I’m pleased to welcome a number of the North’s leading voices on business, technology, energy, civic life and the arts to our Board, as well as a leader for our work on skills and education.”  

“Their contribution will prove invaluable to driving forward the Northern Powerhouse agenda as we push ahead with our objectives of rebalancing the economy and securing further devolution across the whole of the North. “

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Northern pupils are still facing the biggest disruption to learning this year, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) has warned, in light of new data from the Department of Education showing secondary school attendance well below 80% in many areas of England.

The NPP is backing calls from the Children’s Commissioner for England Anne Longfield, who says mass testing in schools should be rolled out in areas of greatest educational disruption first and attendance should be factored into exams 2021 for children most affected by learning loss. 

While pupil attendance in the rest of the country is now beginning to drop in line with levels in the North, Northern pupils – who have faced significant disruption since September – are still the most at risk of falling behind. 

School attendance figures for 23 March to 10 December have been published by the Department for Education. This is the first breakdown at a regional and local authority level since October.

In some areas of the North, including Oldham and Newcastle, secondary school attendance has consistently remained below 80% for most of this academic year. In most areas of London, attendance has only fallen to this level in the last two or three weeks.

Five out of the ten local authorities with the highest levels of missed classroom learning since September are in the North.

There is also a clear link between disruption and deprived areas, with local authorities that have high proportions of Free School Meals pupils seeing more days of lost learning.

As the graph below shows, though attendance in areas of London are now beginning to fall, places such as Oldham and Newcastle have been battling low attendance rates since September.

In the most recent five-week period, secondary schools in Hull have reported an average attendance rate of just 63%, though last week this had increased to 74% from a low of just 56% in the middle of November.

Source: Department for Education, Attendance in education and early years settings during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

There are also concerns from the Northern Powerhouse Partnership that the greater numbers of disadvantaged children in the North are less likely to have access to the digital devices and broadband connections necessary to learn remotely, meaning that the learning loss they have experienced is likely to be greater. 

Sarah Mulholland, Head of Policy at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said:

“While it’s clear school attendance across the whole of the UK is now beginning to drop in line with the North, it’s worth remembering that Northern pupils have already lost weeks and weeks of learning.  There are GCSE students in Oldham who have had just six weeks of face-to-face teaching this academic year.

“The Children’s Commissioner is completely right to call for mass testing to be rolled out in areas of greatest educational disruption first and for attendance to be factored into exams 2021 for children who have been most affected by learning loss.

“As the data does not give a breakdown for specific year groups, we’re still not able to see the full impact on pupils in Year 11 and Year 13 due to sit exams in just a few months’ time. It is pupils like these who stand to lose the most from missing school.

“The government faces three critical challenges if we’re to avoid a repeat of last summer’s results chaos – targeting catch-up provision at those who need it most, closing the digital divide and factoring in differential levels of attendance in pupil assessment.”

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By Lord Jim O’Neill, vice-chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership

In last week’s Spending Review, the Chancellor announced a £4 billion levelling up fund, intended to be the light at the end of the tunnel after fifteen minutes of dismal economic forecasts.

It was a little underwhelming. Managed jointly by the Treasury, the Department for Transport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the fund will require local areas to compete for money, rather than handing powers and funding to the directly elected Metro Mayors.

 For those of us hoping for a bigger say for these local areas, which have both the capacity and democratic mandate to lead the recovery, it was a setback. However, it is those areas yet to sign devolution deals that are of even greater concern. Places such as Cumbria – without a Mayor to deliver a coherent plan to government – risk wasting money on economically irrelevant projects, which will fail to address the UK’s fundamental spatial inequalities.

Levelling up can only be achieved by tackling the productivity gap at the heart of the North-South divide and – without transformational infrastructure – this simply won’t happen.   Developments such as the proposed £125m Eden North in Morecambe – an innovation-led project with the potential to simultaneously spearhead a green revolution here in the North and revive tourism in the local area – will be passed over in favour of cheaper, minor schemes.

Since its inception, the driving theory behind the Northern Powerhouse has been devolution. Working in the Treasury alongside then-Chancellor George Osborne, we advanced the case for the intrinsic value of empowered local leaders, directly answerable to their electorate.

In 2017, the first of the devolution deals were signed and we now have Metro Mayors in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire and the Tees Valley, with an election this May in West Yorkshire.  

While we’ve started to see some promising in-roads in areas such as in the Tees Valley and in city regions like Greater Manchester, the Mayors’ powers have been limited due to governments failing to recognise their potential and devolving further. It wasn’t until the introduction of local restrictions in August – and the ensuing well-publicised battle between Mayors and Whitehall – that people sat up and began to take notice.

Until local areas aren’t forced to go with a begging bowl to Whitehall whenever they need funding, this tension will continue to sow conflict – each time growing a little more fractious. Far easier and more effective would be a system that trusted Mayors to do the job they were elected to do.

And we’ve seen time and again that it works. Bradford Council have implemented a hugely successful track and trace system themselves months before overly centralised health bureaucracies understood the role local authorities could play.

I still believe that the Chancellor, a longstanding supporter of Northern Powerhouse Rail across the Pennines long before he arrived at the Treasury, is committed to the North. Most important of everything announced on the Spending Review was his promise to rewrite the Green Book – the Treasury’s ‘Bible’ when it comes to signing off infrastructure spending. Its purpose is to determine a particular project’s value for money but, in its current form, it has led to a cycle of decline where rich areas get richer and poor areas get poorer.

The next step is devolution – real devolution that cedes real power. This should be the moment Whitehall realises it becomes stronger by sharing power with the North – not by tightening its grip.

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The Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) and UK2070 Commission are together calling for Metro Mayors to be given a greater say in leading the UK’s recovery from Covid, including of the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the North.

Ahead of the Spending Review, NPP director Henri Murison and chair of the UK2070 Commission Lord Bob Kerslake will call for clarity on the plan for levelling up, alongside targeted investment in industries that increase productivity.

They will tell the BEIS select committee on Tuesday 24 November that the recovery must focus on devolving more powers to locally-elected leaders and allowing them to upskill the workforce in key industries of the future, including advanced manufacturing, digital and green energies.

These sectors could hold the key to solving the UK’s productivity crisis that lies at the root of the North-South divide, and wider regional inequalities across England.

While the Prime Minster has maintained that levelling up remains a top priority, Lord Kerslake says that there is still no sign of a plan and the government must appoint a dedicated Cabinet member and committee to ensure they deliver on election promises.

In October, the UK2070 Commission found that COVID-19 has exacerbated the UK’s economic dependency on London and the wider South East, calling for a £375bn 25-year New Deal strategy for a ‘just recovery’ to offset:

• The £4bn per year gap in research and development investment, through creating at least four global centres of science and technology outside the UK’s ‘golden triangle’.
• The £20bn per year cost of poor local connectivity, through major investment in transit systems in all major towns – and about 1,000 miles of new, upgraded and electrified main railway lines and services to more remote communities.

Last month, the UK2070 Commission set up a Teesside Taskforce to support the creation of better-quality, skilled job opportunities in the North East, through investment in freeports, steel, hydrogen and the wider net-zero agenda.

Mr Murison will be speaking at the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), a world-leading research and innovation institution with more than 120 industrial partners. 

The AMRC is part of the University of Sheffield and it is also one of the national High Value Manufacturing Catapult centres – a world-leading hub for manufacturing companies, academia and government to drive improvements across multiple industries, whether aerospace, energy, construction or rail.

The AMRC Training Centre in Rotherham provides apprenticeship training to students aged 16 and over through partnerships with both SMEs and global brands, including Boeing, Rolls Royce and McLaren.

Mr Murison will highlight the role that companies like Sheffield Forgemasters can play in developing world-leading small modular reactors (SMR) technologies, with the potential to form a vital role in decarbonising the UK’s energy strategy and closing the power deficit. 

In its recent 10-point plan for a green industrial revolution, the government announced £215 million funding for the UK SMR consortium led by Rolls-Royce. The consortium comprises nine companies and research organisations, including the Nuclear AMRC – the AMRC’s sister centre, also part of the University of Sheffield and the HVM Catapult.

The consortium aims to have its first power station in operation in the early 2030s, with the development programme creating around 6,000 jobs by 2025. Up to 80 per cent by value of the power station components will be made in factories in the North of England and Midlands.

Sheffield Forgemasters received funding from the government in 2019 to build a large-scale BOST five-axis vertical turning lathe and a BOST RAM boring machine, the first of their kind in the UK, which combined with the company’s depth of manufacturing skill for civil nuclear projects, delivers a significant technological advantage in this market.  

SMRs are potentially faster to manufacture, safer and easier to decommission than large nuclear power plants and, by keeping the supply chain here in the UK, will create more skilled green jobs in the economic recovery.

Lord Bob Kerslake said:

“While we’ve seen plenty of warm words about levelling up, we still need a plan for devolution of further fiscal powers.

“Central and regional government both have a part to play in delivering this agenda. We need a dedicated cabinet member and committee, working alongside Metro Mayors across  the Western Gateway, Midlands Engine and Northern Powerhouse, to build a comprehensive plan for economic rebalancing. 

“The UK is one of the most centralised, imbalanced developed countries in the world and this has a serious detrimental impact our ability to drive economic growth. Recovery post-COVID will only take place once we realise that.”

Henri Murison said:

“Unlocking the North’s true economic potential through accelerating decarbonisation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution is not only crucial to closing the North-South divide, it is essential to recovery across the whole of the UK.

“The North’s vast economic assets are still hugely underutilised but through sustained investment in sectors such as off-shore wind, hydrogen and SMRs, alongside targeted, locally-led skills programmes, we can build back better in some of the areas worst-hit economically by COVID.

“We need to invest in both infrastructure and people to deliver this vision, upskilling and reskilling the workforce in highly-productive industries and sustainable energies that drive economic growth across the whole of the country.”

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