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By DAN O'DONOGHUE AND ROB PARSONS - July 1 2022
Facing a room full of local leaders in Harrogate this week , Michael Gove conceded the hundreds of funds they're forced to bid for and "the amount of bureaucracy around them puts a significant burden on local government".
And as he promised to reduce the number of funding pots - which require town halls across the North to spend their scarce resources competing - his Levelling Up department set out for the first time exactly who benefits from the alphabet soup of different schemes.
The sheer complexity of negotiating the likes of the Coastal Community Fund, Community Ownership Fund, Future High Streets Fund, Towns Fund and the Levelling-Up Fund can be seen in our snazzy - and fully interactive - graphic below.
Political leaders outside London say reforms are needed to give local areas their own pots of money they can use as they see fit rather than having to go 'cap in hand' to central government officials in Whitehall. Northern Powerhouse Partnership director Henri Murison described the current system as an 'affront to democracy'.
He said: “It is time for a Levelling Up reset. Rather than man-marking local government and combined authority officers it is time huge numbers of civil servants are seconded out to areas to add capacity.
"Never mind relocating Whitehall roles to the regions, it is time with every new devolution deal to cut the jobs in domestic departments and release the talent to devolved institutions across the North and wider country.”
This week Mr Gove's department released data for many of the funding pots which come under the banner of Levelling Up, Boris Johnson's pledge to tackle regional inequality and spread opportunity outside London and the South East. Our map here shows exactly which local authorities get what funds - how does your area fare?
And are the funds actually getting to the areas that need them? Per head of population, the North East is actually the biggest beneficiary of Levelling Up. Its total of £689.52 compares with £573.21 for Yorkshire and the Humber, £503.75 for the North West and £226.89 for the South East.
But Andy Westwood, Professor of Government Practice at the University of Manchester, said places with the weakest 'human, institutional and social capital' were often slower to develop plans and bids. He said: "And so we get more of the so-called ‘Matthew Effect’ ie ‘to those that have (resources, strong local institutions, bidding capacity etc), more shall be given."
And Sheffield MP Clive Betts, who chairs the Levelling Up select committee which requested the data , fears the current system may still be failing to direct funding to the places that most need it.
He told us: "This latest Government data is welcome but there continues to be a lack of transparency and evaluation around many of the schemes connected with the levelling-up agenda. For example, this latest data does not clearly show us which local authorities were unsuccessful when bidding for funds."”
The veteran Labour MP argues that levelling up "cannot be properly achieved without moving to more fiscal devolution, giving local leaders and local authorities greater freedom and enabling them to take long-term decisions for their communities and be more accountable to their electorates".
Boris Johnson's government 'overwhelmed and torn about its purpose'
But how committed and able is Boris Johnson's Government to making the hard decisions that could make levelling up a reality? According to Rachel Wolf who co-authored the Conservative Party's Election Manifesto in 2019, it's "impossible to overstate" how chaotic the current administration is.
Speaking at the 'What's next for levelling up in Greater Manchester?' event at the Alliance Manchester Business School, the Founding Partner of the Public First consultancy said the Government was "completely torn about who it is serving and what its actual strategy is, it is overwhelmed by a growing economic crisis".
She added: "Its capacity across most departments is quite limited. So its ability to drive through change in the next few years, consistently, is really small".
She said the best way for local leaders to get the powers and resources they want is to tie them into the issues local voters are most likely to care about at the next election - like crime and high streets - so they would be included in party manifestos.
Andy Westwood told the audience a big test was how the Department for Education - the most unfriendly department in Whitehall to the idea of devolution of powers to local areas - responded to the Levelling Up agenda.
And John Wrathmell of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, who is heavily involved in the region's 'trailblazer' devolution talks with M inisters, said 'significant' devolution would be needed to get close to the Government's 12 Levelling Up missions set out in the recent White Paper.
A key ingredient in levelling up is transport and the view of the Government's approach, particularly on rail in the North, has been damning.
In an interview with the Northern Agenda podcast , Labour's shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said the North is being left to "pick up the scraps" while investment is ploughed into rail in London and the South East.
Ms Haigh also backed a Manchester Evening News campaign, which is calling on the Government to reverse its decision on an underground HS2 station at Piccadilly.
In April, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the underground option had been ruled out because it would 'take a lot of money out of other parts of the network'. Instead the Government is proposing a cut-price overground station which will see trains emerge from the ground in Ardwick before travelling on a mile-long viaduct of up to 12 metres in height to reach the new surface station.
Leaders in Greater Manchester say that's short-sighted, will result in the loss of 500,000sq metres of prime development land, cut off Metrolink lines and blight the city centre by turning swathes of land into a building site.
Ms Haigh said: "This is just one of the many issues that were part of the Government's integrated rail plan, which is anything but integrated. They're not delivering what they promised. It is cutting off Manchester's and the North's ambition."
Culture Secretary 'switched codes' after Rugby League blunder
Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries will be invited to sample Rugby League at first hand after confusing the 13-man game played largely in the North with the rival code .
Liverpudlian Ms Dorries stunned a Rugby League audience in St Helens by referring to Jonny Wilkinson’s match-winning drop goal for England in the 2003 Rugby Union World Cup final in Sydney.
Ms Dorries, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, was speaking in St Helens at the launch of a report into the social impact made by the 2021 Rugby League World Cup at the Portico Vine community club. “I’ve always quite liked the idea of rugby league,” she said. “My long-standing memory is that 2003 drop goal."
Ms Dorries attempted to make light of her faux pas, saying she may have “switched codes like Jason Robinson” but her comments were condemned by Portico Vine vice-chairman Billy Vaughan. “Whoever writes these scripts should check their facts before the speeches are delivered,” he said.
Former charity boss accused of 'spreading hate, racism, and disinformation' in relation to child sexual abuse
A former charity boss has been accused in Parliament of "spreading misinformation" in relation to child sexual exploitation in Oldham .
Oldham West and Royton MP Jim McMahon last night used parliamentary privilege to accuse Raja Miah of seeking to make financial and political gain by "spreading hate, racism, and disinformation" on his online blog.
The Labour MP said Mr Miah was motivated by a "self-declared campaign of revenge" after the collapse of a free school chain on his watch.
Mr McMahon said videos and posts on Mr Miah's website were "diverting focus away from justice for victims" of abuse in Oldham.
He said: "We have seen it before, with far-right protests taking to the streets, smearing whole communities and setting out to divide. And it's increased significantly with the rise of social media and conspiracy theorists' platforms such Recusant Nine platform led by Raja Miah, who seeks to make financial and political gain, by spreading hate, racism, and disinformation."
"We need to be clear with the people of Oldham, about the motivations that sit behind this has little to do with being a ‘Victims Champion’."
Yorkshire Tory sceptical about Boris Johnson's plan to be PM 'until the mid 2030s'
Boris Johnson's ambition to serve as Prime Minister "until the mid-2030s" has been greeted with scepticism by a senior Yorkshire Tory.
Sir Robert Goodwill, who chairs an influential House of Commons committee, said many of his colleagues still felt that "a change might be a good idea" after the Partygate affair and by-election losses in Wakefield and Devon.
Despite rumours of mass Tory defections to Labour, the Prime Minister confidently proclaimed on Saturday that he was "thinking actively" about a third term in Number 10 which could stretch into the next decade.
Sir Robert said "time will tell" and said a lot depended on whether the Prime Minister could deliver on the levelling up agenda, among other manifesto commitments.
The Scarborough and Whitby MP told our podcast : "I've been disappointed by some of the decisions made by the current government, certainly when Dominic Cummings went to the North East I thought he should have been sacked. There are still many colleagues on the back benches who feel that a change might be a good idea."
But on a visit to Newcastle yesterday, Jacob Rees-Mogg was confident voters in the North East still support Mr Johnson.
Asked if he believed that ‘Red Wall’ Tory MPs elected in 2019 and North East voters who supported Mr Johnson still had faith in the PM, Mr Rees-Mogg said: “Yes. The Prime Minister won a huge mandate in 2019, he won it from voters who had not previously voted Conservative, particularly in the North East."
Transport commissioner received £600,000 payout weeks before starting new role
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham's new Transport Commissioner banked more than £600,000 in taxpayer money after leaving Transport for London - before taking the job up North months later.
Vernon Everitt, who has vowed to ‘write the next chapter’ of the region’s transport story, was previously a director at TfL. Mr Everitt, who had worked for TfL for 14 years, received £352,697 for loss of office, as well as a salary of £200,294 and a £71,180 delayed bonus for the previous year.
It’s understood to be the biggest annual remuneration ever paid by TfL. He left the board in January as part of cost-saving measures, only to take up his position in Greater Manchester in May.
The figures, featured in TfL's draft Remuneration Report and Statement of Accounts for the year ended March 31, 2022, were considered at TfL’s Audit and Assurance Committee meeting on June 6.
The Manchester Evening News asked the Mayor's office exactly when they began talking to Mr Everitt about his new role, and for his current salary. A spokesman said Mr Everitt had left the employment of TfL in January 2022, before any conversation began about him taking up his Commissioner role, which started on April 25 2022.
A GMCA Resources Committee report shows that Mr Everitt is contracted to work three days a week on a rate of £650 per day, up until October 25 2023, with costs met from the Mayor's Transport budget. If Mr Everitt works three days in each of those 78 weeks, he will earn £152,000. This doesn't account for possible holidays.
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Northern Stories
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