Be level up with us

Don’t let the Powerhouse stall

MANY ARE understandably disappointed that the Chancellor did not use this week’s economic statement to advance the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda and Northern Powerhouse.

In turn, Rishi Sunak will argue that his pronouncement was a national one – he made clear that the measures will benefit the whole of the United Kingdom – and that more fundamental change will have to wait to the Budget this Autumn which is also due to coincide with the much-delayed spending review.

But there’s a nagging sense, as the IPPR thinktank reiterates previous calls by The Yorkshire Post and Power Up The North campaign to invest in health research and development in this region to kickstart the economy, that momentum is slowing.

And while the focus of

Ministers is still on the response to Covid-19, it is also important, at the end of another week in which tens of thousands of people lost their jobs, that the pandemic does not stand in the way of the Government’s desire to turbo-charge the English regions and, specifically, the North.

Yes, the Government will point to the dual role that Grant Shapps as Transport Secretary and Northern Powerhouse Minister and he, too, is frustrated that so much of his time has had to be spent on post-Covid logistics for trains, planes and buses.

But this does not excuse the passiveness of the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy which should be front and centre of the Government’s ‘bounce back’ strategy and ‘opportunity for all’ policy agenda. When is it going to start stepping up to the mark?