Clegg confirms city deals
CITY deals for the wider Liverpool area and Manchester were rubber stamped by deputy prime minister Nick Clegg and key local figures yesterday.
The idea is to give the cities the powers and the finance to enable them to drive economic growth. It also applies to Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield.
In Liverpool the agreement will fund the proposed International Business Festival and support the creation of an £800m joint investment fund for transport in the area.
Other initiatives will include combining £81m of public and private cash for skills investment, a low-carbon red tape pilot which could see planning rules for offshore wind farms relaxed and cash for studies on cleaning up the Mersey in a bid to make it “the cleanest river in an urban setting by 2045”.
The Liverpool City-Region deal is on top of the £130m deal which the city of Liverpool separately hammered out with the government earlier this year, which led to the creation of the elected mayor and five Mayoral Enterprise Zones.
Manchester’s £1.2bn deal includes an “earn back” measure, which allows the city to keep extra tax revenues created captured from projects in which it has invested via the new £100m Greater Manchester investment fund.
A new City Apprenticeship and Skills Hub will also be created, alongside a Low Carbon Hub that will jointly invest in energy efficiency schemes.
A Greater Manchester housing investment board will be created alongside the Homes & Communities Agency to develop council-owned land and bring empty properties back into use. Money will also be made available for the city to pursue “high value” inward investment.
Mr Hough, chair of Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), said: “This city region deal is critically important for our economy as we seek to increase our competitiveness over the next few years. For instance, our innovative ‘Skills for Growth’ programme will enable us to support 17,400 people into work while creating around 6,000 apprenticeships.
“Additionally, the focus on low carbon engineering resonates strongly with the key sector growth strategies of the LEP. The city deal process has shown how the partners within the city region can work together to achieve positive benefits for the economy.
He added: “Delivering this city deal will be a significant step forward in realising our ambitions and the potential of the city region.”
