‘Guarantees needed’ for the North East from new Northern Powerhouse boss
TFM Radio meets the new Northern Powerhouse Minister.
The new Northern Powerhouse minister says he's determined to get the North East a good devolution deal.
Andrew Percy MP was given the role this week by the new Prime Minister, Theresa May. He said:
“I’m a northern lad, I’m northern born and bred and I’ve been passionate about trying to devolve power away from Whitehall. My job is to work with local government, local businesses and interest groups to deliver just that for the North.
“I want to see us standing on our own two feet with our shoulders and our heads high. Yes, we have some significant issues in parts of the North but we’ve also got some huge advantages. There’s nowhere else I’d want to live.
“A real partnership between local government, between national government and between businesses, I think can actually deliver revolutionary change. I’m not going to pretend it’s going to happen overnight but by working together, working in partnership I think we can really move the North forward.”
Andrew got the job after Stockton South MP James Wharton was moved in the cabinet reshuffle.
There's been some scepticism of the Northern Powerhouse in Teesside after the closure of SSI last summer.
Also, Post-Brexit many concerns have arisen about what happens now that we’re set to lose around £400million from European Union funding.
North East Labour MEP Paul Brannen said:
“There isn’t that huge pot of money to dole out as we thought there might be, or so the Brexit campaigners thought. So yes there is some concern and understandable confusion over whether or not the money will still come from London in the way that in the past it’s come from Brussels.
“We’re looking for those reassurances from the government, hopefully they’ll be able to come through. To be fair to the government there are some issues around the difficulty of giving assurances around the funding because we now don’t know what’s going to happen to the economy in the next few years.”
Meanwhile, Gateshead Council’s leader says we need reassurances from the government that the North East WILL be better off going forward. There were the only council in our region to refuse a devolution deal earlier this year.
Councillor Martin Gannon said:
“Personally I’d never heard of this particular member of parliament before. We have a new Prime Minster, we have a new Chancellor of the Exchequer, we have a new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and we have a new minster for the Northern Powerhouse and frankly I don’t know the views of any of them.
“We need an assurance form government about what exactly happens Post-Brexit and if that money is lost is the UK government prepared to make up that deficit because if they’re not prepared to make up that deficit then that means they’ll not be able to deliver on the deal they agreed on the 23rd March.”