ANDREW VINE on Tuesday
ONE THOUGHT should be uppermost in the Chancellor’s mind tomorrow when he makes his statement on how Britain’s economy recovers from the onslaught of coronavirus.
It is that Yorkshire and the wider north must be given the means to spearhead the national fightback against the wave of job losses and business collapses that are already wreaking havoc on lives and communities.
The economic potential of our region, and its workforce, has never been more crucial to the welfare of the whole country, as well as the Yorkshire towns and cities already counting the cost of economic shutdown.
Whether in manufacturing, services, high-tech industries or agriculture, Yorkshire has a key role to play in pulling Britain out of the economic slump that is going to make the months ahead some of the grimmest in living memory.
But we can’t play that role unless decades of under-investment and bias towards the south of the country at the expense of the north are brought to an end. As revealed yesterday, the disparity between us and London is a staggering £58bn over the last decade.
That is the challenge facing Rishi Sunak when he sets out his strategy for taking Britain forward. Government leaks point to likely cuts in VAT and stamp duty to boost spending and house sales, but the Chancellor needs to go much farther and deliver real structural change in investment that frees our region of the financial shackles that have held it back for so long.
Calling for massive new investment in the North is not special pleading.
It’s a sound and sensible strategy for unleashing the economic power of a population of 15m people – getting on for a quarter of the country’s total – for the betterment of everybody in the land.
There should be a degree of optimism that Mr Sunak understands the importance of the North. After all, he is a Yorkshire MP and on record as committed to levelling up the economy.
But there’s more to it than that. Alone amongst the most senior figures in the Government, the Chancellor has emerged as purposeful in his response to the crisis that coronavirus has created.
Whilst the Prime Minister has appeared buffeted by events rather than taking control of them, and the Health Secretary has appeared petulant in response to legitimate questions about how the pandemic has been handled, Mr Sunak has given the impression of being the one Minister with a cool head and clear sense of direction.
That was demonstrated by his pledges to provide the NHS with whatever resources it needed, and then the package of support that furloughed workers to preserve jobs and stop businesses going under.
This was politics at its most pragmatic. Now it’s time for Mr Sunak to take a similarly practical approach to putting Yorkshire at the vanguard of recovery.
Our region’s potential has gone unrealised for decades because of underinvestment in virtually every area, from transport to education. Every bit of that potential now has to be unleashed, and invested in, if there is to be any hope of recovery and workers whose jobs have already gone are to see the chance of new employment.
For that to happen, our region must be given the means to boost economic activity in all areas. That means full devolved powers so that we can take advantage of the know-how of business and civic leaders who are more closely in tune with this area than any Londonbased mandarin ever could be.
It also means prioritising the Northern Powerhouse, which can become a source of strength and hope for the whole country, and getting HS2 built as quickly as possible, particularly since the section to Sheffield and Leeds could bring up to 150,000 jobs.
Boris Johnson’s pledge to “level up” the economy between north and south was sorely needed anyway, given the historic degree of inequality which successive governments had allowed to go unchecked.
But the consequences of the pandemic are already demonstrating beyond question that levelling up is now needed as never before. It makes absolutely no sense to have this huge swathe of Britain – and its biggest county – underperforming at a time when we need to flex every economic muscle we can.
Last week’s call in these pages by Huddersfield MP Barry Sheerman and Thirsk and Malton MP Kevin Hollinrake for a Minister to be appointed to work with the region’s leaders should be heeded by the Government and acted on.
The North stands ready to help, not just for the sake of all those who live here and are already worried sick about their livelihoods, but for the sake of the whole country.
Give us the means, Mr Sunak, and we’ll play a leading part in helping Britain get over this crisis.