Regions can lead recovery

Devolution’s importance grows

CONFIRMATION FROM Chancellor Rishi Sunak that the UK is in the midst of a significant recession comes as absolutely no surprise.

The unprecedented rescue package that has been delivered to save as many jobs and businesses as possible at a vast cost to the public purse was undoubtedly the right thing to do for the country in response to the coronavirus crisis and should hopefully hasten an eventual economic recovery.

But the unavoidable reality is that spending has dried up, companies are collapsing and many jobs will not return.

The scale of the crisis has been underlined by a leaked Treasury document estimating the UK’s deficit could reach £337bn this year because of the pandemic, compared to the forecast £55bn in March’s Budget.

It is in this context that the Chancellor and his colleagues in the Cabinet should pay great attention to the clarion call from Doncaster Chamber’s chief executive Dan Fell published in today’s The Yorkshire Post which says “devolution on steroids” is now needed in the North to help get the national economy back off its knees.

With positive developments on devolution in Yorkshire in the months before the pandemic put ordinary life and the usual approach to politics on hold, now is the time to step up measures to give powers and financial backing to the North.

While Boris Johnson’s appetite to move forward may be more reluctant than it once was – both from a perspective of freeing up more money from investment and equally having seen the devolved leaders of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland decide to diverge from his plan to ease lockdown restrictions – he must remember one of the key promises he was elected on was that of ‘levelling up’ the country.

‘Big Government’ has been needed to provide a national rescue package during this unprecedented crisis, now it is time to help recovery be led from the regions.