Mark Casci: We cannot miss this chance to seize devolved power and unite our region

It's funny how certain things stay with you.
Northern PowerhouseNorthern Powerhouse
Northern Powerhouse

For me, a story recounted to me by somebody who works at a senior level in Yorkshire business told me revently has really stuck in my mind.

She told me how, while some work was being done on her house that one of the builders pointed to a nearby laptop computer and told her that the difference between people who worked behind screens and those who worked with your hands was that the latter would be voting for Brexit while the other would not.

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My contact rightly challenged the notion, voicing that the vote had ramifications for the whole economy and nothing to do with class or elitism but had been steered that way by vested interests. The builder’s view is an over-simplification of course, but it raises a salient detail we cannot ignore - that we are a nation divided.

Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, Andrew Percy, who has been appointed minister for the Northern Powerhouse.Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, Andrew Percy, who has been appointed minister for the Northern Powerhouse.
Conservative MP for Brigg and Goole, Andrew Percy, who has been appointed minister for the Northern Powerhouse.

The arrival of a new Prime Minister in the shape of Theresa May has given us some much-needed political stability. We also have a new chancellor too, the archetypal ‘safe pair of hands’ that is Phillip Hammond.

And for Yorkshire’s business community we have heard what we wanted to hear. The new Secretary for Transport has reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to HS2.

The much-maligned Northern Powerhouse minister James Wharton is gone. For readers going through today’s supplement in the north of our patch this will be joyous news. Mr Wharton’s handling of the crisis with Teesside’s steel plant was lacking on every level and he made an enemy of Teesside’s true powerhouse, Bulkhal and Middlesbrough FC boss Steve Gibson. From this moment on he was on borrowed time.

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In his place is Brigg and Goole MP Andrew Percy. Mr Percy, another safe pair of hands. His task, along with Mr Hammond is to now drive through what was called the Northern Powerhouse. They may wish to call it something else but the project to devolve power to the north, make it greater than the sum of its parts and rebalance the economy away from continued investment inequality that favours the South East must be committed to with unswerving dedication.

Leeds is integral to the Northern Powerhouse.Leeds is integral to the Northern Powerhouse.
Leeds is integral to the Northern Powerhouse.

And their first port of call must be to begin to sort out the increasingly protracted devolution settlement for West and North Yorkshire.

Manchester, South Yorkshire and the North East all have their houses in order. I am not minimising the complicated task at hand but we cannot ask as a region for devolved decision making and then dither of the first decision we are asked to make.

Let us heed the words of former Keepmoat boss Terry Bramall, who alongside his wife Liz last year won the Individual Award at last year’s Excellence in Business Awards, for their significant philanthropy work after selling the company.

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Mr Bramall told the audience that the region at large should stop arguing over who got the biggest slice of the cake, and rather that they should “make the cake bigger and then everybody benefits”.

Sheffield can be at the vanguard of a new Industrial Revolution if the Northern Powerhouse takes off.Sheffield can be at the vanguard of a new Industrial Revolution if the Northern Powerhouse takes off.
Sheffield can be at the vanguard of a new Industrial Revolution if the Northern Powerhouse takes off.

We cannot delay in the pursuit of this task. Yesterday Deloitte warned CFO confidence was at a lower level than seen at the time of the collapse of Lehmen Brothers. The EY ITEM group warned of anaemic growth but stopped short of predicting a recession. Larry Fink, chairman of BlackRock, has already gone that far.

Today we see our hospitality sector is in trouble. Jobs in one of our most challenged (yet post potentially prosperous) cities in Hull are increasing but wages are falling. A cut in interest rates is inevitable next month after Mark Carney and the rest of the MPC decided to play a straight bat last Thursday.

Every day throws us new challenges. Does this sound like a good time to give up the chance to control our own fortunes and decision making? It could not be a worse time. We have an opportunity here to throw off partisan blinkers and be masters of our own destiny.

And maybe then the builder will see the laptop user as what he or she is, his ally and colleague in a newly empowered Yorkshire and North.