The path appears to be clearing for County Durham to join a multi-billion devolution deal that will create a new North East mayor.
A massive deal that would reshape the region’s political landscape and deliver a raft of new funding and decision-making powers has been shrouded in uncertainty for weeks. But councils could now finally be edging towards a resolution on the agreement, which would potentially see a mayor elected in 2024 to govern a massive area that could stretch all the way from Berwick to Barnard Castle.
Talks between local leaders and Whitehall officials over a package worth more than £3bn covering Newcastle, Gateshead, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, and Sunderland have been ongoing for months and an agreement has been close since the final days of the Boris Johnson administration. Its progress was hampered by two Government collapses in quick succession and then thrown into new doubt when the Tory-Lib Dem coalition leadership at Durham County Council decided in October that it wanted to join the deal too, having earlier been pursuing a single-county deal instead.
