What next for the Northern Powerhouse?

 

The Northern Powerhouse celebrated five years of operation in June, aiming to bring about change to the northern England.

 

Introduced by then Chancellor George Osbourne in June 2014, the government lamented the lack of economic and physical connections between the cities and city regions of the North of England, saying the divide was holding back their growth.

 

However five years on, the IPPR North reports that there has been a
£3.6 billion cut in public spending in the north since 2010, compared with a £4 billion rise in the south, with the think tank also claiming that 200,000 more children in the north of England are in poverty and that the number of late or cancelled trains in the region has more than doubled.

 

So has the plan for northern cities halted under the ongoing austerity measures of ministers in Westminster? Did Theresa May and Philip Hammond have the same passion for pursuing change that their predecessors had when promoting devolution and introducing Transport for the North? And where will the Norther Powerhouse feature on the priority list of new Prime Minister Boris Johnson?

 

Answering some of these questions, Henri Murison’s article on page 14 is essential reading.

 

Michael Lyons, editor