Labour councillors have failed in a bid to have Durham shun a multi-billion pound devolution deal that would create a new North East mayor.
A deal uniting seven council areas under a new combined authority is moving ever closer, in a major shakeup of the region’s political landscape that would deliver major new funding and powers. Labour opposition councillors and MPs in County Durham have been vehemently opposed to the idea of their area joining with Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, and Northumberland in the pact.
But county councillors rejected the party’s attempt on Wednesday to commit the council to instead pursue its own single-county devolution agreement, an alternative that one critic has now branded a "dictatorship". That vote came as politicians elsewhere in the region appear to be moving firmly towards allowing Durham to join the deal, something which Government ministers are also known to be keen on.
Read More: North East mayor talks: Path clearing for Durham to join multi-billion pound devolution deal
Leaders now hope that a major announcement could be made before Christmas on a proposed deal that, with Durham’s involvement, could be worth more than £4bn over 30 years and see a mayor elected in May 2024.
In a heated debate at Durham County Hall on Wednesday lunchtime, Labour opposition leader Carl Marshall accused the authority’s Tory-Lib Dem coalition of being “incompetent” and “absolutely out of touch with the community and completely out of its depth”. Coun Marshall claimed that a county deal would deliver more power and money to Durham and make them “masters of our own destiny”, with Labour councillors fearing their massive county being left as a minority part of a large, metropolitan-focused authority with a mayor who would likely based in Newcastle.
He urged the council to follow Cornwall’s lead in securing its own devolution deal and elected mayor, warning it would be passing up a “once in a lifetime” chance to do so. But the council instead voted by a tight margin of 63 to 56 to back an amendment to Labour’s motion by Lib Dem council leader Amanda Hopgood, which committed the council to securing a deal that is “best for County Durham residents and businesses” without specifying whether that would be a solo deal or going in with its six northerly neighbours.
Coun Hopgood told colleagues that she was “willing to get the best deal for County Durham, whatever that looks like”. But the council’s deputy leader, Conservative Richard Bell, confirmed that an ‘LA7’ deal was the administration’s preferred option.
He said the region-wide package offered “significantly more money than a county deal” and is “resourced better than anyone could have expected”, as well as being the Government’s preferred choice for Durham. Coun Bell added: “As it stands, it is the best deal on the table and what cabinet has been supporting.”
Labour councillor Olwyn Gunn said it was “not a good deal” to have a mayor based outside the county making decisions about investment in Durham, while colleague Eddy Adam added that he did not want to hand power to a mayor who would “not have an interest in the south of the region”. But Liberal Democrat Mark Wilkes accused Labour of trying to hoodwink the public and likened their proposition of an elected Durham mayor to a “dictatorship”.
After the defeat, Coun Marshall told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that Durham Labour “won’t give up the fight for what we think is best”. However, he admitted that there will come a time when the party must “accept that we are in opposition”, having lost control of the council for the first time in a century last year, and said he would be willing to back an LA7 deal if it could be proven to be in the county’s best interests.
The race is now on to get a North East-wide devolution proposal agreed in principle so it can go before council cabinets early next year and be put out for an eight-week public consultation to be held before the local election period begins. While details have not been confirmed, it is thought that the Government has offered to increase the value of the deal’s yearly investment fund from £35m to £48m if Durham is part of the arrangement – and is also willing to grant the North East the same ‘trailblazer’ status being given to Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
If a deal between the seven is agreed, it would reunite the councils who were agonisingly close to signing a previous devolution deal in 2016 before it collapsed at the eleventh hour. Newcastle, North Tyneside, and Northumberland subsequently broke away to form their own North of Tyne Combined Authority (NTCA), for which Labour’s Jamie Driscoll was elected mayor in 2019.
He has already declared that he would seek Labour’s nomination for a North East mayor role, while Northumbria Police and Commissioner Kim McGuinness is also rumoured to be eyeing the job.
Details of the draft deal being worked on before Durham’s involvement also included a £900m transport funding package up to 2027, a yearly £44m budget for adult education and skills, and crucial decision-making powers including the ability to bring bus services back into public control.
Mr Driscoll said: “This new deal builds on what we’ve done at the North of Tyne, and gets the wider North East the highest amount of investment of any devolution deal in the country. And it opens the door to further investment, and bringing decision making out of Whitehall and into our region, closer to our people. And all our council leaders and teams have been involved in shaping it.
“It’s still a “minded to” deal at the moment – but much of what’s on the table has been negotiated. Each individual council still has to make its own, formal decision – that’s how democracy works. I said that if the Government was serious about levelling up, it’d need to write a cheque. Well, after years of under investment in our region, it's finally time for the people of the North East to cash in what’s due to us.”
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