Businesses demand extra power to close the North-South gap

The Northern Economic Futures Commission warned the Government’s Localism Bill could potentially be a “Trojan horse” policy that leads to more decisions being made by central government.

Research by the commission shows the wealth gap between London and the South East and the North continues to grow, with Yorkshire, the North East and the North West falling behind in relation to key drivers such as skills, business start-ups, and investment in transport, science and technology.

It adds further weight to the Yorkshire Post’s Fair Deal for Yorkshire campaign, which has so far revealed that the region is losing out in terms of local government and transport funding as well as jobs.

The new Minister for Cities Greg Clark travelled to Leeds yesterday to speak at the commission’s launch and promised to “listen to what the North needs”.

“The Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) are gaining influence and strength – you only have to look at the enterprise zones, before they were done from Whitehall but now it is the LEP which nominates where they should be,” he said. “It is for business and council leaders to make these key decisions.”

The research revealed that there was a significant turn-around in the economic fortunes of some of the North’s major cities prior to the recession – including Leeds, Sheffield and York – but the North-South divide still continues to widen as the drivers for growth remain concentrated close to London.

The commission’s aim is a 10-year strategy for economic growth and chairman Geoff Muirhead warned that there was a danger the LEP’s would be “too small and too fragmented” to provide a coherent voice for the region.

“We must be careful that the Localism Bill is not a Trojan Horse for further centralisation,” he said.

“Northern prosperity is national prosperity. With London, Scotland and the other devolved nations increasingly free to develop their own plans with their own powers, it is time for the North to set out its stall for what it needs to remain competitive in the global economy.”