Clegg vow on regional ‘megafund’

The Deputy Prime Minister told MPs that England is approaching a “significant moment” when it will finally “break from the long tradition of over-centralisation” which has held back regions such as Yorkshire for decades.

The Government has committed to implement the vast majority of Lord Heseltine’s plan for kick-starting growth, including his central proposal to devolve large sums of public money to local areas to spend for themselves.

Chancellor George Osborne said further details would be included in his post-2015 spending review, to be unveiled on June 26.

But with individual Ministers battling to keep control of their departmental budgets, concern has been mounting that the Government will pay little more than lip service to the devolution plan.

Those fears were stoked by Business Secretary Vince Cable, who suggested in April the Government may not actually put a figure on the amount of devolved funding to be made available – something Lord Heseltine has made clear would be “not satisfactory”.

Speaking in the Commons yesterday, Mr Clegg sought to allay concerns the announcement later this month will prove no more than a damp squib.

“The Government have confirmed that they will implement Lord Heseltine’s recommendation that economic development spending should be devolved to local areas through a single pot,” the Sheffield Hallam MP said.

“Alongside the Budget, we published more details on the creation of that single local growth fund. The next step is an announcement on the size and content of the fund as part of the spending round.”

Mr Clegg said the coalition could be proud of its record on devolution, and that a raft of reforms – including City Deal packages for Leeds and Sheffield, and the creation of business-led local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) – would leave the country far less centralised than when it came to power in 2010.

“We have already announced that we are going to implement the vast majority of the Heseltine recommendations – 81 of the 89,” the Liberal Democrat leader said. “That really will be a significant moment, when we break from that long, long tradition, which has prevailed under Governments of all persuasions, of over-centralisation in England.

“In addition to the radical moves – the city deals, the LEPs and the devolution of business rates – it will leave this country significantly more devolved by the end of this Parliament than we found it.”

Speaking at Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Clegg also insisted the Government will press ahead with reform of the lobbying industry, and opened the door to the possibility of new laws to sack peers who are caught abusing their positions.

Downing Street announced this week that following the newspaper sting on Newark MP Patrick Mercer, a Bill on lobbying will be brought forward before the summer, with legislation allowing the recall of MPs to follow in 2014.

Mr Clegg said these Bills could also include measures to help clean up the House of Lords.

“I remain of the view that the introduction of democracy is the only serious long-term reform that the Lords requires,” he said.

“But if any minor technical housekeeping changes that are deemed necessary – for instance, kicking out crooks or people who do not attend, or extending the voluntary retirement scheme – require legislative backing, we will of course consider incorporating them.”