No.10 North

It was good to join colleagues in No.10 North as we progress the next stage of devolution.

We’ve almost completed devolution across the North of England with Cheshire and Warrington, and Cumbria due for their first mayoral elections next May, and my hope for Lancashire to develop a mayoral devolution agreement remains, at which point we would see the entire North of England represented by mayoral devolution, new Strategic Authorities to oversee investment, growth alongside a range of extended powers and freedoms.

The same is true across the country where there is appetite to end the centralising and disconnected political culture, which often sets areas in desperate need against one another in bidding wars, for what usually ends up being limited investment which doesn’t address the scale of the social and economic challenges those places face.

For those who have longed believed the centralised and disconnected stronghold in Whitehall and Westminster has held our regions back, it’s a hugely exciting time.