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Hello,
There was so much agreement at one stage of yesterday’s Convention of the North that Michael Gove joked it could end Andy Burnham’s career.
The Labour mayor has a decent relationship with the Tory Levelling Up secretary. He even called for him to be reinstated when he was sacked last summer telling this newsletter he was the one minister who was ‘doing his job and doing it properly’.
And Mr Gove yesterday admitted that although he didn’t always agree with the Greater Manchester mayor, ‘indeed it would be fatal for his political career if I did’, he has used the mayoral model ‘powerfully and effectively’.
Mr Burnham, he said, recognises his central role is ‘economic development - driving growth’ and the government wants to hand over more control. Mr Burnham, he said, has had success ‘turning derelict brown fields into nurseries of investment’.
It seems that relationship is flourishing, but other local leaders may have felt left out. As Helen Pidd, of the Guardian reports, Mr Gove met with Mr Burnham for around 15 minutes after his speech, but did not have time for meetings with the other mayors.
It was a typically florid speech from Mr Gove with the minister flailing from a reference to The Communist Manifesto before suggesting the North could be revived by harnessing the ‘spirit’ of Thatcherism.
It was certainly a lengthy speech, spanning more than 35 minutes. In fact host Evan Davis was forced to intervene twice to stop him.
At its heart was a message that devolution through the mayoral model was a success - albeit one Mr Gove attributed to the Tories.
He expressed a hope that powers over further and technical education, transport, trade, culture and employment support can be devolved. And he spoke of a desire to hand powers to areas such as Cumbria, Cheshire and Lancashire.
A couple of new announcements were snuck in too. Most notably, he promised £15 million for Greater Manchester to improve social housing following the tragic death of toddler Awaab Ishak.
It’s not yet clear which pot that sum will come from, but Mr Gove said it was a ‘personal’ mission to improve the quality of homes as ‘we know poor housing kills'.
Mr Gove also used his speech to hold London's Docklands up as a beacon of Levelling Up ‘success’.
He claimed the ‘spirit’ of that 1980s transformation - led by Thatcher's government - is there ‘most vividly’ in current plans for new Investment Zones.
Those comments angered his Labour counterpart, Lisa Nandy, who told BBC North West Tonight it felt like he was ‘attacking the people of the North’ given ‘the devastation of the Thatcher years on the North’.
She used her own speech to accuse the government of ‘writing off’ areas that once fuelled the UK economy - and for failing to deliver on the manifesto pledge to create jobs outside of London and the south-east.
She said the government must ‘change or die’ after failing to respond to ‘tsunami after tsunami of discontent’ from the public.
The shadow levelling-up secretary promised to hand even more power to local leaders if Labour win the next election, saying those with ‘skin in the game’ are most able to take on ‘opaque systems’.
Despite their differing approaches to Levelling Up, Ms Nandy and Ms Gove did agree on some of the problems plaguing our country. Namely debt, manufacturing decline and failing transport networks. Perhaps there is consensus after all.
Do we need a ‘supra mayor’?
It’s clear that on most things, the various Northern mayors are on the same page.
But Radio 4’s Evan Davis - who was hosting the convention - asked a question which could ruffle some feathers.
“Do we need you, Tracy Brabin, Steve Rotheram to have a tournament to become a sort of supra mayor? Or a bigger region to think strategically? Or do you need a council or the north which has an official place as kind of a mini parliament that goes beyond one city or county?” he asked.
“Steve and I already had that battle - it was a DJ battle we held last year,” Mr Burnham joked (while also pointing out that he had won).
Mr Burnham said he increasingly works with his Liverpool and West Yorkshire colleagues through an ‘M62 mayors' corridor’ and would also like to collaborate with Cheshire and Lancashire.
But he suggested that the convention could, in time, become a place where leaders ‘do deals with each other and seal investments’.
‘Even the winners are losing’
There was a distinctly Germanic theme permeating yesterday’s convention.
Michael Gove began his speech by part quoting The Communist Manifesto and German philosopher Friedrich Engels.
“I want to begin my remarks by quoting from a prominent Manchester industrialist of the 19th century, Friedrich Engels. A spectre is haunting Europe. In our case it is the spectre of low growth,” he said.
Before the convention even began, Northern leaders had declared an intention to mimic Germany by ‘hard wiring’ levelling up into UK law. Rather than the current competitive bidding systems like the Levelling Up fund awarded last week, they want a financial settlement that gives all regions the funding needed to close gaps in living standards and help grow the economy.
"East Germany has seen long-term support and investment since the fall of communism - and it has worked. Cities in Eastern Germany are now powering ahead of cities here in the North," Mr Burnham said.
Delegates at the convention also heard a video address from Carsten Schneider, the Minister for East Germany and Equivalent Living Conditions in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ Government.
He said the German constitution guarantees equivalent living standards and strong local leadership. "Regional structural policy has long been a cornerstone of German politics,” he said.
"The goal of creating equal living conditions everywhere in Germany can even be found in our constitution. There are good reasons for it. If regions are drifting apart, it is bad for everyone, including for the growing regions. If a variety of regions flourish, the whole country will prosper."
Expanding on that thought, Mr Burnham said the British government previously ‘laid foundations’ for a successful levelling up policy in post-war Germany. “Imagine a commitment in UK law to equal living standards. Imagine if we’d had that in the post-war period,” he said.
“Many of you would have got the Manchester underground to the convention today. Others would have had a peaceful train journey. You might even get a seat. It’s for certain we would have a modern industrial base much bigger than what it is today, a bigger economy across the North of England.
"Better, more secure jobs, better homes, people would be in better health and living longer. But we didn’t get that in the post war period. Let’s see if we can get it in the 21st century.”
But when shadow Levelling Up secretary, Lisa Nandy was asked about the East German model - which is largely based on growth in cities - she was less effusive.
“You don’t just need one national growth plan or even just one model of city-led growth. You need to be thinking about the potential and the assets that exist in all places across all parts of the North,” she said.
Asked by Evan Davis if the London ‘commuter model’ has anything to teach the North, the Wigan MP said it had failed.
"A million people make their home in London every year, trying to find better work, better wages, better opportunities. I know because 20 years ago, I was one of them. And I did find those things,” she said.
"But what I also found were the cripplingly high housing costs that are blighting an entire generation. I found struggling public services, I found these huge extremes of inequality, of poverty and wealth existing side-by-side.
"It's just not sustainable for any part of the country. If you undercook some parts of our economy, you overheat others so that now disposable incomes in London - when you account for housing costs - are lower than nearly every region in the country.
"Even the winners are losing, and I think we can do far, far better."
Dragging us down
“Don’t mention the trains,” joked Andy Burnham at the start of the convention.
But it wasn’t long before he and his fellow Labour mayors DID mention the trains - and in quite some detail.
During a meeting with journalists, they called for train services run by TransPennine Express to be brought under public control, urging the government to cancel its contract after years of 'poor' service, as Joseph Timan reports.
"If we just put ourselves in the real world of our residents, there is one thing that is bringing a lot of negativity to the North at the moment, dragging down our economies and actually dragging down people's lives and their wellbeing. That is the failing train services across the North of England,” Mr Burnham said.
"We are in a position where we can't accept it anymore, we can't allow them to damage our economy day after day. We can't allow them to damage people's lives day after day.
"There has to come a point where you say you can't accept this anymore. We're at that point."
Analysis by Transport for Greater Manchester recently revealed that 18,000 rail services have been cancelled over the last 12 months, but only one-third led to financial penalties.
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Weather etc
- Friday: Cloudy changing to sunny intervals in the afternoon. 7C.
- Road closures: One lane closed due to carriageway repairs on M56 in both directions between J7 A556 Chester Road ( Bowdon ) and J5 (Manchester Airport). Source:Council until February 18.
- M56 Eastbound exit slip road to the A34 closed due to roadworks at A34 Kingsway until February 5.
Worth a listen
My colleague Rob Parsons, who edits The Northern Agenda newsletter, was the only journalist offered an interview with Mr Gove during the convention. Although he did have to carry out the interview in the back of a moving taxi on the way to Piccadilly train station.
Mr Gove told Rob: "Here in Greater Manchester, we know that the centre is buzzing. We know that there are other parts of Greater Manchester, whether it is Rochdale or Oldham that need additional attention.
"And part of the purpose of my speech today was to stress that it's not going to be an overnight project, it will take time. That's why we've said that our missions are going to be measurable by 2030.
"But what I hope we will see is that with every year that passes, mayors have more powers, with every year that passes, our major cities are increasingly attractive places for investment."
You can listen to the whole thing on this week's Northern Agenda podcast and I highly recommend you do.
That's all for today
Thanks for joining me. If you have stories you would like us to look into, email beth.abbit@menmedia.co.uk.
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