Clegg urges Whitehall to cut purse strings

THE deputy prime minister has highlighted the need to get Whitehall to let go of the purse strings in order to move forward with decentralisation.

Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg launched his Northern Futures project in July.  The aim is to facilitate a more open and innovative approach to economic policy making in the North of England by inviting experts and other members of the public to share their ideas on challenges and solutions.

Speaking at a question and answer session in Leeds on Northern Futures, Clegg said: “If we can break the stranglehold over Whitehall on money, then we can break it on power too. Who controls the purse strings is really important.”

Clegg said we need to get Whitehall to let go of the purse strings and highlighted that any decentralisation must mean decentralising the “heavily centralised” tax system.

“The heart of it is about money,” he said.

Turning to Scotland, which has voted no to independence, Clegg said he thinks the referendum has almost surprised people in the way it hasn’t been only all about Scotland. “There is a real appetite for this. There’s an unstoppable momentum and the genie is out of the bottle – Whitehall can’t wiggle free from doing anything,” he said.

When asked about how to support other cities, as well as the North’s core cities, Clegg said: “It’s about how do we spread the goodies between the North. Other cities are of course included – it’s not just Leeds, Sheffield, etc.

“We need to overcome some of our traditional and very good humoured rivalries between great cities in the North. We have to realise that we are all in the same boat.”

Northern Futures final proposals will be unveiled in Yorkshire in November.

Clegg said: “For far too long our economy has remained reliant on London for decisions, funding, subsidies etc.

“Before the crash in 2008, for every private sector job created in the North, ten were created in the South. So we became dependent for the hand-outs. Before 2008, no one really noticed the unbalance – money was being generated in the South and shipped to the North but in 2008, the cardiac arrest of the heart of our economy, the merry-go-round went bust in the chaos.

“Now, we are trying to make sure the North is not so reliant on the South and can secure sustainable economic prospects in which the North can stand on its own two feet.

“Northern Futures is an open forum saying let’s get the best ideas of how we can decentralise and be more self-sufficient. It’s not just about creating an economic hub in the North, but to make sure that economic hub that can compete with Madrid, Bangalore, Shanghai for example, which are all competing for capital investment.”

Clegg added that we need to think about decentralisation not just in economic terms but more broadly too. He said transport is a key thing to be working on but why not look at skills, social care and education, too. “It is time to think expansively about what we can do,” he said.

“There’s such an appetite for people to take power into their own hands.”