But take this from the labour leader of Greater Manchester Council, Sir Richard Leese, after his trip 2 weeks ago to China with the chancellor:
"A few days in China doesn't half help put the relevance of the northern powerhouse concept into perspective. The North of England has around 15million residents, it's major cities, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield ( including their whole city region areas ) 10million. If you draw a triangle with Newcastle, Sheffield, and Liverpool as its corners, the land area covered is less than that by the cities of Beijing or Shanghai on their own. Chongqing's 30million people live in a city the size of Austria.
On the
other hand, if you look at the economy of the North of England, at £290b per
annum GVA, it is larger than that of Denmark or Sweden. Premier League football
is a great door opener here, but though everybody seems to know about
Manchester City and Manchester United, they don't in general know much more
about our city, and we are pretty tiny compared to even medium size Chinese
cities. If we succeed in getting the transport investment we want over the next
ten to fifteen years to get the sort of connectivity that we want between the
northern cities - connectivity that will help us create the virtual super city
of the North, then as a virtual city of 10million people, a city bigger than
London, we begin to register.
All
five city Leaders have been here this week and we are finding that working
together to promote economic opportunity across the North is getting a real
return. So far we have presented to a number of high-level business audiences
in Beijing and Shanghai, and this afternoon we will do so in Chengdu, a city of
12million plus in China's south west, and a part of China that continues to
have double digit growth.
I have
regularly argued that Manchester's future, like its past, is as an
international city, and to be that we have to promote ourselves
internationally, both for trade and investment. Being here is already having an
impact with major companies we have met here already seeking appointments to
meet us in Manchester before I've even left. We've had a number of recent
examples of Chinese investment in the city, the most recent relating to
Middlewood Locks in Salford. There is plenty of room for a few more."
“The harsh reality is that whilst the North
East squabbles the Labour-led local authorities of Greater Manchester,
Yorkshire, Liverpool and elsewhere are pressing ahead and embracing the
government’s offer of devolution.
Let
us be clear: all the North East businesses, the North East Local Enterprise
Partnership, North East Chamber of Commerce, and a multitude of other
organisations see the force in uniting transport, health, and a large number of
regional services, in an integrated manner, under the ultimate control of a
directly-elected mayor. The mayor-led model has worked for London.
The
only objectors are some or all of the 7 Local Authority county council leaders.
Why?
There
are only two possible explanations: either they wish to preserve their own
fiefdoms and fear that someone from Gateshead, Sunderland or Newcastle might be
in charge with the result that the mayor will not favour them / feather their
nest as only they can; or they do not have aspirations for the wider North
East?
I
cannot believe that this is the case, because surely they accept that we are
better together as a larger unit, competing as we are on the global scale and
other larger regions.
Is
this is a power struggle amongst the seven local authority leaders? I do not
know.
But
it smacks of the old story of ‘if Newcastle gets this then Sunderland must get
a bridge’. This attitude is genuinely holding us back. I urge everyone to make the case for unity, for a mayor, for
greater devolution and greater jobs and prosperity.”
