Newcastle’s Labour leader has “huge confidence” that the North East’s council chiefs will mend old wounds and agree a massive devolution deal that would see a new mayor elected for the region.
Levelling Up papers published by the Government on Wednesday include a commitment to press ahead with an expanded devolution settlement for the North East, which would cover more areas and put significantly more power and money into the hands of local officials.
A new deal being struck could mean a new mayor is elected to serve the people of Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside in 2024 – while County Durham is set to go it alone with a single county deal.
Go here for the latest regional affairs and North East politics news
Past talks over a similar plan collapsed in 2016 when councils south of the Tyne pulled out amid a bitter political battle.
But the mood is now optimistic that council leaders can put old differences aside and reunite with the creation of a new combined authority.
Newcastle City Council leader Nick Forbes said on Wednesday night that he had “huge confidence that there is entire political agreement across all of the councils involved in these discussions, regardless of political leadership”.
Coun Forbes told a full council meeting: “We have a clear sense of what we are trying to achieve, a clear vision of how we can improve our region.
“Our ultimate focus is to tackle the sense that this is somehow a region in decline. We do not buy into that, we do not accept that as our narrative.
“We are determined to ensure that our region has a better future ahead of it than behind it.”
He expressed hopes that a new deal, potentially worth more than £1bn, would give the North East funding and powers to tackle major issues in public transport, housing, skills and education.
Coun Nick Cott, the city’s Liberal Democrat opposition leader, told the meeting that “internal rivalries” between local councils had held back the region previously and would have to be resolved.
Fellow Lib Dem Greg Stone also called for any new mayoral authority to have a mandate from the public and “democratic legitimacy”, something which he claimed was “fairly lacking” from the existing North of Tyne body.
The North of Tyne Combined Authority, for which Jamie Driscoll is mayor, was set up in 2018 when Newcastle, Northumberland, and North Tyneside broke away from the rest of the region to agree their own devolution deal.
Coun Forbes claimed that the North of Tyne was a “huge success” that had helped create or safeguard almost 5,000 jobs.
He added: “It was a first flag in terms of devolution but I know that much of the excellent work that has gone on in North of Tyne will develop into the new combined authority area and give us even more confidence for the future as the home of green and blue energy, the home of innovation, the home of digital creativity, and the home that will give people the quality of life that makes this such an attractive part of the world to live in.”
