Commissioners may control fire and rescue

Rail Minister hails new transport hub

FIRE AND rescue services in England could in future be brought under the control of elected police and crime commissioners (PCCs), Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.

Following the first stage of a two-part review into the role of PCCs, Ms Patel said she was putting forward proposals to make them more accountable to the communities they serve.

They include a requirement to explain their record on crime to the public while taking steps to strengthen their relationship with their chief constable and police force.

Ms Patel said she also wanted to change the voting system for PCCs to the first-past-the-post system used in Westminster, making it easier for the public to vote out those who fail to deliver on their promises. She said the review found support for the ambition to increase the accountability of fire and rescue through a directly elected official.

THE creation of a “Northern hub” in Leeds for a major government department is part of a wider cultural shift that means people could have an entire Civil Service career without working in London, a Minister has said.

Rail Minister Chris HeatonHarris said moving hundreds of Department for Transport (DfT) staff to Yorkshire’s biggest city and others to a second headquarters in Birmingham will “improve government across the piece”.

It comes after Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced that Leeds would host the new National Infrastructure Bank. Channel 4 has moved its headquarters to the city and the Conservative Party is also setting up a base there.

It also emerged yesterday that more than 1,000 UK civil service jobs are due to be relocated to Scotland in the coming years. As well as the previously announced Cabinet Office headquarters in Glasgow, more than 500 Foreign Office jobs will move to the department’s existing base in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire.

Mr Heaton-Harris said the DfT already had a small presence in Leeds and shared a building in the city with Highways England.

But he told The Yorkshire Post: “The purpose of this is we’re recruiting already jobs throughout all the grades of the Civil Service to be based in Leeds, and are expecting other departments to join us so someone can have a complete Civil Service career working

through from the bottom to the top, without actually having to venture down into London for a period of time.

“I’m a Midlands MP and I’m very much looking forward to not having to commute to London to do ministerial work.

“Considering so much of the investments we are putting in are going to be across the North, it is a very good place for Ministers to spend some time here.”

The move, described as a “significant wider culture change across Whitehall”, will see a major DfT base in the biggest city in Western Europe not to have a rapid mass transit system such as a tram network.

West Yorkshire leaders are preparing a bid to submit to government next year for a share of the £4.2bn Transforming Cities Fund to help build a metro system as part of their wider vision for transport in the county.

And West Yorkshire council leaders said they hoped having a DfT base in Leeds would help “make the compelling case for future investment in our transport system”.

Leeds Council leader James Lewis said: “Investment in transport is central to our plans for the future and I hope the presence of more decision-makers in our city helps ensure the case for further investment in Leeds is heard.”

Mr Heaton-Harris said that in a campaign visit to West Yorkshire during the 2019 general election he had a “long conversation” with his friend Stuart Andrew about the potential for the transport system in Leeds.

He said: “If you look at what might well happen to Leeds station itself, with HS2 and Northern Powerhouse Rail and it’s not just platform zero, it’s the whole host of other things which will, I think, fundamentally change the nature of transport in the city.”

I’m very much looking forward to not having to commute to London. Rail Minister Chris Heaton-Harris.