Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove says he wants to give Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham a guaranteed funding pot to spend as he wishes to help end the 'begging bowl' culture where local leaders are forced to bid for vital investment.
Speaking to The Northern Agenda politics newsletter at the Convention of the North in Manchester, the senior Tory said giving mayors like Labour's Mr Burnham more powers over their own finances was "absolutely the direction of travel".
The Levelling Up Department and Greater Manchester officials are in the final stages of talks over a 'trailblazer' devolution deal which would give the mayor - and Tory Andy Street in the West Midlands - more powers than any other outside London.
Mr Gove was tight-lipped about the specifics "because there is some quite pernickety, finicky detail that we need to sort out with things like accountability and so on" but met Mr Burnham again yesterday following his speech at the Manchester Central complex.
It was reported this week that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is looking to tackle the “begging bowl” relationship between England’s regions and the Treasury in a bid to boost the flagging 'levelling up' agenda first promoted by Boris Johnson.
Under the current system metro mayors are reliant on funding from central government which has to be used for specific purposes or bid for against other areas.
Listen to the full exclusive interview with Michael Gove on The Northern Agenda podcast:
The issue has become particularly acute in recent days after hundreds of local councils missed out on funding in the second round of the £4.8bn Levelling Up Fund after spending thousands of pounds and many hours preparing their bids.
Only 20% of the 500 applications for regeneration cash were successful and it later emerged that local authorities who'd been given money in the first round of the fund had no chance of success second time around.
Mr Gove said giving mayors like Mr Burnham more control was the "right" approach. But he warned: "What we need to do is make sure with devolution that we match that ambition with deliverability. And we do also want to make sure that we can show that devolution works.
"One of the successes I think so far going right back to [former Chancellor] George Osborne's initial creation of mayoral combined authorities, is devolving significant powers, sufficient to show that the model would work, and then winning confidence for yet further devolution over time. So I think that is the direction in which we should be moving.
"But so much of politics is about delivery, so much about delivery is about detail. And when, for example, we're thinking about the interplay of say, health and social care, all of us would want to ensure that a great national service like the NHS was operating equitably, and effectively across the country. Social care is, of course, delivered by local authority partners.
"When you're thinking about the future of those services, you have to proceed with care. But it's always and everywhere the case that we want to be in a position to empower local leaders to do more."
In a recent interview with GB News, Mr Burnham praised the Levelling Up Secretary, saying he doesn't just "mind the paper clips" and was a "pleasure to work with".
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Asked if he'd return the compliment, Mr Gove said: "I don't want to ruin Andy's career by saying too many nice things about him."
He added: "But no, the key thing is that mayors succeed, and Andy succeeds on the basis that he is serving his community, that he has a clear set of objectives to improve lives for people in Greater Manchester.
"And my view is, whoever the electorate chooses to represent them, it is my responsibility to work with that individual in the interests of citizens and communities who deserve better public services and increased economic opportunities."
And asked when people in the North would feel like they'd been levelled up, he said: "I think that it will be felt differently at different times in different locations.
"So I think last week, both Blackpool and Morecambe knew that they were beneficiaries of leveling up, with the commitment to the multiversity and the commitment to the Eden North project. But there are other communities where we do need to do more.
"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.
"With every year that passes we can see towns ringed around those cities, benefiting from strong mayors, and that we will also see other towns whether it's Blackpool, Morecambe, Grimsby or Blyth also getting the attention of government and people there will be able to say that while there's still a lot to do, but a lot has been done."
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