Analysis

IT was in the closing moments of his address to the Great Northern Conference that Grant Shapps may have inadvertently put his finger on the glaring hole in his government’s Northern Powerhouse strategy.

” Ultimately, the most fundamental challenge is to ensure the North truly owns the Northern Powerhouse,” said the man whose job it is to bang the drum for the issue around the Cabinet table.

The Transport Secretary was able to point to investment in transport around the region and the efforts to bridge the economic gap with London and the South- East by, for example, making the Tees Valley a hub for pioneering hydrogen technology.

He vowed that his government would honour his promises to the North but warned that Chancellor Rishi Sunak – who should know the issues affecting Yorkshire better than most – did not have unlimited resources owing to the dire state of public finances.

But the fact that Northern leaders are dependent on the largesse of Whitehall to embark on their post- Covid recovery shows how far the region is from fulfilling its powerhouse potential.

Even metro mayors like Greater Manchester’s Andy Burnham, who has more powers and resources than any other political figure in the North, lacks the autonomy or funding to do anything other than accept hand- outs from central government to support local businesses.

The answer to this problem is greater devolution of powers to the North, making it bitterly ironic that central government’s current lack of bandwidth means the long- awaited White Paper setting out its vision in this area has been delayed until next year.

Even former Minister Lord O’Neill, one of the architects of the Northern Powerhouse idea, told Times Radio yesterday that the Government should “shut up” about “levelling up” unless more devolution happens.

The centralised nature of decision- making in this country means many in the North feel like the tough decisions being made by political leaders are being done to them rather than with their consent.