Exclusive: MP blasts coalition over key policies to aid North

The Bradford East MP warned that key policies portrayed as helping the North would only aid the most affluent areas, predominately in the South.

Mr Ward was speaking at the Leeds City Region Summit after the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) revealed 60,000 jobs needed to be created to get the region back to pre-recession levels. He also attacked Tory members of the Government for “not caring” whether the “old industrial areas” of Yorkshire were left behind by their policies.

The Government dismissed the claims, claiming its plans “will unleash enterprise and innovation”

The Yorkshire Post campaign Fair Deal for Yorkshire is fighting for fairer public funding after a number of independent reports revealed the region was losing out in key areas such as transport and housing. Mr Ward warned that plans to change business rates and housing rent will only favour wealthy areas, particularly those in London and the South-East, and attacked the responses to his concerns from Local Government Minister Eric Pickles and Housing Minister Grant Shapps.

The Coalition is proposing to allow councils to keep business rates raised in their own areas – in the past rates were collected and distributed by central Government. Housing rents are also being changed to allow social landlords to charge more, and local authorities to borrow money against these future profits to fund more homes for poorer families.However, the plans are controversial, some claiming struggling families may not be able to afford higher rents, while the impact on deprived areas is debatable given social rents are already close to market rates.

• More in Saturday’s Yorkshire Post