A historic £4.2bn devolution deal signed on Friday is “bigger, better, and bolder” than failed past attempts to unite the region, Michael Gove has pledged.
The Tory levelling up secretary joined council leaders on the banks of the Tyne on Friday to put pen to paper on the major agreement, which is set to bring extra powers and funding to the North East as well as a new elected mayor. In a ceremony at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, on the Gateshead Quayside, Mr Gove called the deal an “investment of hope and trust in the region and its people”.
He told journalists that the agreement was “bigger, better, and bolder” than one which collapsed at the eleventh hour in 2016, with councils in Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham now set to finally reunite. Asked whether the multi-billion pound deal, which will be spread over three decades, was sufficient to make up for the vast cuts to local government funding here in the last 12 years, Mr Gove said: “I absolutely accept that the North East has sometimes been overlooked in the past, but today you have seen all the local leaders from different political traditions coming together.
