Rewrite the Green Book rules on spending Rishi Sunak – The Yorkshire Post says

But he preceded this pledge with this assertion: “First, we are going to change the whole mindset of Government. To make sure that economic decision making reflects the economic geography of the country, we are reviewing the Treasury’s Green Book.”

This is key – all the talk about ‘levelling up’ the country, the Government’s new catchphrase, is vacuous until longstanding Treasury rules – the so-called Green Book – are rewritten to put more emphasis on those parts of the UK, like the North, with the greatest economic need and potential.

And while this is particularly pertinent, as The Yorkshire Post has demonstrated on multiple occasions, when it comes to transport, infrastructure and housing, it is equally applicable to the Byzantine funding of local councils that has so shortchanged town halls here.

A system that has become a lottery because every reform undertaken by past Tory and Labour governments has only made the funding system for councils even more complicated, it is compounded by adult social care and the Government’s hope that one-off payments can mask the financial pain being felt by local authorities.

But this approach provides no long-term certainty or continuity, hence why Mr Sunak’s promised reform of the Green Book must also go hand-in-hand with an overhaul of council funding and social care. If not, the funding injustices will persist and undermine the Government’s wider agenda.