All seven councils joining forces for a £4.2bn devolution deal for the North East have now endorsed the historic pact.
Local authority cabinets across Northumberland, Tyne and Wear and County Durham have all given their backing this week to the huge agreement, which will see a regional mayor elected in 2024. The long-awaited deal would give major funding and decision-making powers to local leaders, including the ability to bring bus services under public control.
The North East public is now set to be given a say on what would be a massive shake-up of the region’s politics, with an eight-week consultation due to be launched next week. However, there will be no public referendum on whether or not to accept the devolution deal – unlike the 2004 poll that saw plans for a regional assembly overwhelmingly rejected.
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Following meetings in the north of the region earlier this week, ruling councillors in County Durham, Sunderland and South Tyneside all formalised their support for the scheme on Wednesday and Thursday. At Durham’s cabinet meeting on Wednesday, council leader Amanda Hopgood insisted that the ‘LA7’ offer was better than the county going it alone with a devolution deal – with Durham having been the last to join up to the arrangement just a few months ago.
She denied claims from Labour that Durham would be missing out on transport funding through the deal and also said she does not expect a new North East mayor to impose any extra burden on people’s council tax bills. Coun Hopgood, a Liberal Democrat, said: “More and more deals are being handed out across the country and doing nothing means we will be left behind other parts of the country. This is not something we can allow to happen.”
Deputy leader of the council’s coalition administration, Conservative Richard Bell, added that the North East would now have a “significant” national voice.
South Tyneside council leader Tracey Dixon called the deal a “significant step towards securing important decision making powers and investment for our region”, while Sunderland Labour chief Graeme Miller said it “gives us opportunities in areas that otherwise we would not have been able to address”. The cabinets of Newcastle, North Tyneside, Gateshead, and Northumberland councils all backed the deal earlier this week.
Should the agreement go ahead as planned, it will reunite authorities on either side of the Tyne, after a dramatic break-up. The four councils south of the river pulled out of a previous devolution deal offered by the Government in 2016, prompting Newcastle, Northumberland, and North Tyneside to break away and form their own North of Tyne Combined Authority.
Once approved by local councils and then Parliament, the devolution deal would establish a new North East Mayoral Combined Authority, while the existing North of Tyne and North East combined authorities would cease to operate. It includes a £48m per year investment fund to be delivered over 30 years, a £60m per year adult education and skills budget, and the power to bring local bus services into public control.
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