Time to invest nation’s wealth in vital services – Yorkshire Post Letters

JIM O’Neill describes how the “Northern Powerhouse” started as George Osborne’s vision back in 2015 of how the Northern economy should develop (The Yorkshire Post, October 19). He had seen the need to level up the country and for more investment in technology and infrastructure but he was certainly not right about everything.

The devolution agenda has created the Mayoral Combined Authorities, designed to promote investment and be business focused. Meanwhile, cash-starved local councils, which are far more closely accountable to the public, still have inadequate resources to improve the lives of ordinary people.

There is growing awareness of the value of the numerous services which are people focused – health, social care, the NHS, local public transport and education.

We are led to believe that affording these is completely reliant on the future delivery of major engineering projects, eventually leading to improved economic performance.

Yet, as Lord O’Neill observes, we already live in one of the world’s richest countries. Maybe it is time to invest a bigger share of that collective wealth in the services that benefit people directly, providing numerous decent jobs in the process?

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