Grayling urged to reach deal on devolution
Grayling and devolution debate
COUNCIL LEADERS have urged Transport Secretary Chris Grayling to help negotiate a devolution deal for Yorkshire that allows the region to tackle its own transport problems.
In a letter to Mr Grayling, the leaders of the five West Yorkshire councils maintain they are ready to accept his challenge to take a leading role on transport if the Government will hand over the relevant powers and money.
The leaders challenge Mr Grayling to help end the deadlock over Yorkshire devolution, a sentiment echoed by Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham writing in The Yorkshire Post today.
Mr Burnham argues “Devolution is famously a process and not an event, but it does need
momentum. The decision on how to make devolution in Yorkshire work is for Yorkshire to decide but my message is clear: The North needs you.”
Mr Grayling sparked anger across the North this week when he used an article in The Yorkshire
Post to tell Northern leaders to take responsibility for addressing transport needs.
Business and council leaders in the North were already upset by Mr Grayling’s decision earlier in the summer to scrap planned electrification of the Midland Mainline between Nottingham and Sheffield and his suggestion that the long-promised electrification of the main trans-Pennine route could be downgraded.
In the letter from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, the council leaders write: “We agree with your assessment that Northern leaders are best placed to understand the transport needs and opportunities of their local area, and that improvements to transport links must be designed and managed by the North itself. We welcome the role that Transport for the North will play in achieving this.
“But you cannot ask leaders in the North to shape their own transport destiny when we do not currently have access to the resources or powers we need to deliver the changes we all agree on as we seek to reverse decades of under-investment in transport.”
Hopes are growing that the long-running wrangle over how Yorkshire can take more control over its own affairs – in the same way as Greater Manchester, Tees Valley, West of England, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands – could be close to being resolved.
The West Yorkshire leaders also ask Mr Grayling to use his “influence within government to help unlock a devolution deal that will give all parts of Yorkshire the tools to take control of our own transport priorities”.
In a joint letter this week, Labour MPs in Yorkshire told Mr Grayling: “Telling the North to sort itself out at the same time as pulling the plug on major, repeatedly promised investment is at best disingenuous, at worst an outrage.”
WHO SAID there was no life left in the Northern Powerhouse? Even though Theresa May’s nowdiscredited former advisers told the Prime Minister to ditch the initiative, the newfound political momentum will force the Government to think again about its obligations to this region.
Not only has Transport Secretary Chris Grayling’s intervention galvanised political opponents and business leaders – he suggested it was up to this region to sort out decades of under-investment in the railways – but also the need for Yorkshire to start speaking with one voice.
This is highlighted by Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, pledging in today’s paper to help Yorkshire councils settle their devolution differences so the whole of North can come together in the fight for fairer funding.
The Yorkshire Post is proud to have been at the forefront of the transport and devolution debate and will remain centre-stage. After highlighting these issues – and opportunities – for at least a decade, the change in political dynamics is encouraging and the outcome of next week’s meeting between council leaders is awaited with interest. It’s also imperative that this positive momentum is maintained, with the leaders of five councils in West Yorkshire writing a letter in which they argue that Mr Grayling’s maxim – namely the North knows best – is extended to his Ministerial colleagues.
It is certainly true that any devolution deal will require compromise by local, regional and national politicians. Yet, if it’s right for transport to be devolved, as Mr Grayling intimated, the same should apply to other policy-making powers so the West, North and East Ridings can come together under the One Yorkshire umbrella. However there’s one major sticking point – brass. This region will require national support to build a world-class infrastructure worthy of the Northern Powerhouse’s aims. As Newcastle Council’s leader made clear at the Leeds transport summit, Ministers can’t pass the buck without passing the bucks.