‘This idea has come back three times for a reason’
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham(Image: Vincent Cole – Manchester Evening News)
Andy Burnham has been in London to set out his latest vision for the North of England – but even he admits, it’s not a new idea.
The Greater Manchester mayor presented his ‘Northern Arc’ proposal in Parliament today (April 29), telling MPs it could give the UK a £90bn boost. The idea is for cities like Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield and Leeds to work together as one huge regional economy.
To realise its full potential, the argument goes, better transport links, like a new train line from Manchester to Liverpool, are needed.
But supporters say that ‘clear government backing’ is also needed in the short-term to give businesses the confidence to invest here.
According to a new report by think tank Metro Dynamics, the ‘Northern Arc’, which stretches from Merseyside to the Pennines, has the potential to give the UK economy a £90bn boost by 2040, doubling the size of the region’s economy in less than 30 years.
This is more than the Oxford-Cambridge arc which Chancellor Rachel Reeves backed earlier this year, saying it could be worth £78bn.
Mr Burnham presented the proposal alongside his Merseyside counterpart Steve Rotheram(Image: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
But while these figures are new, it’s not the first time the idea of connecting Northern cities into one regional hub has come up.
Speaking at the Business and Trade Select Committee this afternoon (April 29), Mr Burnham admitted that his proposal is essentially the same as the ‘Northern Way’ plan put forward by John Prescott in the 2000s and George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse in 2014.
However, the Greater Manchester mayor told MPs on the committee that there’s a reason this idea just keeps coming back.
He said: “Third time lucky, is what I would say. This idea has come back three times for a reason.
“The issue is now Whitehall – are you backing this, or are you not? Are you backing the North of England to succeed now or are you not?
“We’ve got the growth, we’ve built that growth. And it’s a big decision for the country now as to whether or not it’s going to actually do it.
“I’ve got confidence that this government will and we’ll see that in the Spending Review.”
George Osborne delivered his Northern Powerhouse speech over a decade ago(Image: Christopher Furlong/PA)
Giving evidence to the committee on the UK’s industrial strategy, Mr Burnham set out how he wants to unleash the North’s potential.
He argued that devolution has helped Greater Manchester grow faster than the UK, averaging 3.1 per cent a year over the last decade.
But he said the North is still being held back, citing the Treasury’s Green Book rules which he says favours investment in the South.
He added: “Since the demise of big industry in this country in the North and the Midlands in, let’s say the sixties and the seventies, I think there’s been a sense that the North couldn’t be much anymore, it has to be in some form of managed decline.
“It’s just not had the belief as a Whitehall system that the North could be something more.
“I think it’s taken the mayors and the combined authorities to come and say, ‘no, we can be something and we’ll prove to you we can be something more’.”