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Infrastructure powers opened to twenty UK cities

Increased economic power has been opened up to 20 UK cities and regions following an announcement made by the Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, on Monday.

Infrastructure projects around the UK could be given the go ahead as city councils are able to apply for increased powers to make planning and transport decisions.

The second round of “City Deals”, which was announced by Mr Clegg, will grant cities the right to use tax revenues generated by companies in the local area to invest in development.

Eight cities identified as the UK’s most economically important were given increased powers during the first round of deals in June this year, including Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Manchester.

Mr Clegg said: “It’s a pleasure to be here to launch the second wave of City Deals. Some people doubted we’d deliver one wave of deals, let alone two.Yet, here we are: another building block of the UK’s regional renaissance falling into place.”

He said in his speech that while the rebalancing of the economy is a big job, the UK is on the right path to recovery.

He added: “We need a stronger, more resilient economy, built on the backs of industrious and independent cities. Communities able to stand on their own two feet. And that depends on one thing above all else: power.”

Cities will have three months to put measures forward and the best proposals will be given increased powers to decide their own infrastructure plans.

The Deputy PM called the second wave of city deals “a kind of quiet, British revolution”, however union leaders in the North of the country expressed concerns over the way power is attributed.

Kevin Rowan, the Regional Secretary of the Northern TUC said: “These changes to how infrastructure programmes are prioritised and resourced, giving more influence to localities and regions is welcome.

“But to say central government has no role to play wilfully ignores the spatially prejudiced way in which spending on these areas has been carried out in the past.

“If the government was genuinely serious about rebalancing the economy in a positive way it would turn that investment around and allocate a much, much larger share of the transport budget to this [Northern] region instead of seeking to abdicate any responsibility for regional economic progress.”

Mr Clegg concluded: “This kind of decentralisation has never had this momentum before. This is a rare opportunity to rewire our political system, to unleash the grassroots genius that will take our economy from strength to strength. I know the people in this room will join me when I say: it’s an opportunity that must not be missed.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .