Northern towns should not have to compete among themselves for government attention to get desperately needed funding, Wigan’s MP has said.
Senior Labour and Conservative politicians outlined their competing visions for levelling up the North during a conference today, March 11.
And the Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, Lisa Nandy, took the opportunity to slam the government for making Northern towns and cities compete for money controlled by Whitehall, rather than allowing communities in the region to drive its own recovery.
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Ms Nandy and Levelling Up Minister Neil O’Brien were among the speakers at the first Northern Agenda Live event organised by Manchester Evening News publisher Reach, held at The Chronicle and Journal offices in Newcastle city centre.
Ms Nandy, who has been the MP for Wigan for the last 12 years, said that the North has not only seen its infrastructure disintegrate, but has seen an exodus of its talent over the last decade.
'For many young people, it's not a choice, they simply have to go if they are to build there future', she said, draining the region of spending power.
"We'll reject the system that we've been handed by the government, where ministers and civil servants still dole out small pots of money from Whitehall and ask communities to compete for it,” she told the conference.
“It's like some kind of version of the Hunger Games. It's desperately unambitious that some of us will and therefore others must lose.
"More than that, it just doesn't work. Because levelling up isn't about driving people down. Wigan doesn't thrive because Barnsley is doing badly. We rise up together."
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A Labour government, she says, will promise billions in funding to rebuild industrial towns in the North.
“So the centre of our mission – the absolute core of what levelling up means to us - is to bring good jobs back to every community. This is it. The defining mission.
“And we have begun the process of laying out our plans on how we will do this: ensuring jobs and opportunities are spread fairly across the country.
“We are promising £28bn a year, every year, in the next parliament to rebuild our coastal and industrial towns so that young people do not have to move hundreds of miles just to find good work or prospects.
“That means fair investment and better decision making, closer to people, to create the transport and digital connectivity that connects people to jobs, opportunities, families and friends and allows businesses to roam further afield.”
Tory Levelling Up Minister Neil O’Brien used the event to highlight government funding already in play for things like the Grainger Market in Newcastle, the new Northumberland rail line and the planned Britishvolt gigafactory near Blyth.
He said: “The UK is one of the more geographically unbalanced economies in the world, and geographically more balanced economies are stronger. It’s not hard to see why.
“If you have an economy where some bits of it are overheating, people can’t afford to buy a house because it’s too expensive, you can’t get on the train in the morning, and everything is overloaded.
“And if at the same time you have bits of the country that are crying out for investment, crying out for new jobs, and you have underused assets and surplus land, then there has to be a win/win opportunity from the levelling up agenda.”
But for his opposite number, more could be done.
“Imagine what we could achieve with a government that backed us,” added Ms Nandy.
“We could build good jobs in every community, there’s a global race to create these jobs and we will invest to bring them here. So that young people can power us through the next generation like their parents and grandparents powered us through the last. This is the Britain we can be.”
The event - part of the Northern Agenda title which brings together political and public affairs coverage from Reach newspapers and websites around the North - was opened by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
He said: “Say what you want about the Levelling Up White Paper, but it’s hard to deny it is an ambitious and long-term plan, putting the North-South divide and regional inequality at the heart of the political debate.
“But for levelling up to succeed and the White Paper to become a reality, the Government must now start turning those ambitions into real delivery. That means support around the Cabinet table.
“A levelling up mission to bring transport up to the standards of London is welcome but funding for public transport outside of the capital being pared back, while the Integrated Rail Plan we were promised isn’t being delivered.”
The event also heard from other politicians, academics and business figures from around the North who debated issues such as health and wellbeing, Northern identity, the green agenda and education and skills.
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