Mayors and business leaders are set to urge the main political parties to put the North of England at the heart of their 2024 general election manifestos.
Meeting today in Bradford for the annual Great Northern Summit, members of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership (NPP) will call for a ‘New Deal’ for the North and will publish a plan that they argue would ‘turbocharge productivity’ in the region.
The think tank will call on the major parties to pledge their support for unlocking private investment in small modular reactors (SMRs), carbon capture and storage (CCUS), and wider renewables as well as heat pumps and home insulation.
It will also call for an increase in the North’s share of research and development funding, support for Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2, and improvements in intra-city transport links.
The NPP will emphasise the importance of targeted interventions in poorer neighbourhoods to end the education disadvantage gap in the North, and will urge Westminster to devolve skills and training powers to metro mayors.
Lord Jim O’Neill, chair of the NPP, said: ‘The Northern Powerhouse as an economic project needs to last far beyond any one election cycle and we need genuine cross-party support to make that happen.
‘We need a new deal that goes beyond the usual tinkering and completely rewires the system, doubling down on devolution and rethinking our fiscal rules to restore some ambition to our approach to investment.
‘Investors around the world have now woken up to the massive economic opportunity the North of England represents but the private sector needs long-term certainty from government that it is ready to deliver on transport, education, skills, innovation and net zero.
‘The North will be a key battleground at the next election and committing to this plan will be vital for political as well as economic success.’
