Prime Minister Andy Burnham, as almost his first act on returning to the House of Commons, paid tribute to the two Cleveland police offers killed in the horrific two-car crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough in the early hours of 22 August.
In his first statement to the House following his appointment and the parliamentary recess, the new Prime Minister paid tribute to his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, and pledged that the UK would stand firm in helping Ukraine to defend itself.
He then turned immediately to the events on Teesside: “I know the whole House will wish to join me in expressing deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who were killed in the line of duty on the A66,” said the Prime Minister.
“We will do our best to support the Middlesbrough community, which is hurting and grieving right now, and we hear the call from the members of this House representing it for a discussion about investment in policing and police numbers.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood later announced an extra £2mn for Cleveland Police to tackle serious crime, but Labour’s Police and Crime Commissioner for Cleveland, Matt Storey, was reported by the BBC as saying a one-off payment was not a solution.
He said: “It does nothing to address the chronic underfunding that has disadvantaged policing in Cleveland for years.” He called on the government to act to address “deep-rooted funding inequalities”, adding: “Cleveland Police needs at least an additional £20mn every year to recruit and retain 200 more police officers, to strengthen efforts to crack down on serious and organised crime.”
Devolution
Later in his statement, the Prime Minister addressed at length the subject of devolution and the decentralisation of power, a subject of close interest to people in the North East. “From the 1980s, this country took a series of wrong turns,” he said.
“Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the country deindustrialised, austerity followed, hollowing out councils and depriving them of the agency to act to reverse any of this.
And then Brexit compounded the damage, ushering in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration…
“Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain. For 40 years, too many places have been drifting. Too many British high streets tell the story of this decline. People yearn to see them restored to what they once were, as the Community Secretary [Angela Rayner] and I heard on our visit to Ilkeston in the summer.
“But they see no hope if we continue on the same path, with a failed economic model which does not trickle down much to places like theirs and instead allows wealth to be extracted and siphoned out.
Britain’s water industry stands as a leaking monument to that approach. A country run in the private rather than public interest.”
Ownership and control
Burnham went on: “The government I lead will be relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago, ownership and control. And from that control over their destiny comes change and growth…
“For a long time, the country did not have ambitions for its regions outside of London. It even talked of the managed decline of Liverpool. It took the devolution of power out of this place to allow our big city regions the ability to set new ambitions for themselves. Now I want every single place across our regions and nations to be able to do the same, creating the conditions for good growth in every postcode.” The First Secretary of State [Louise Haigh] would be writing to every MP setting out how they could engage Number 10 North in the service of the places they represent.
“This government,” added the Prime Minister, “will oversee the biggest redistribution of power this country has seen. In July we published a statement on the next stage of English devolution, and it will include powers long requested by mayors such as post-16 technical education, employment support and fiscal devolution, starting with the ability to set an overnight visitor levy to commence towards the end of the financial year 27-28.
Rewiring, rebuilding, reindustrialising
“The driving force behind it all will be Number 10 North. It will oversee the rewiring of the British state, the rebuilding of resilience in our communities and the re-industrialisation of our regions. Its creation was one of the first acts of this administration and I believe that in time it will be seen as one of its most significant.
“It is a clear answer to the question with which this country has long wrestled. Who in government drives growth? My theory of growth requires it to be driven with the full authority of the very centre of government in close partnership with HM Treasury. Number 10 North has been set up with that full focus. The single front door on which regions can knock to get quicker joined-up decisions from Whitehall and through which power and resources will be passed to them.
“Resources will include human resources. This is because a state which has grown too large at the national level now needs to redirect civil service capacity regionally and locally, repairing the damage of austerity and making the service of place the state’s first priority..,
Thinking about business
“But driving growth demands we go further. It is taking far too long for businesses to get grid connections. And they are being quoted prohibitively expensive sums of money if they try to bring those dates forward…[H]ousehold energy bills are the highest in Europe, and the cost of energy is impacting business and inward investment. Too many areas have seen water supplies disrupted this summer due to a lack of reservoir capacity. Our tourism industry is damaged by too many sewage spills…This summer has shown us very clearly that water companies are failing to rise to the climate challenge. It can’t go on.
“Later in the year, our 10-year plan for Britain will set out plans for stronger public control over these essentials, making them work for people and places again. Alongside this, we will empower all areas to expand the public housing stock, building on the first allocations from the Social and Affordable Homes programme announced by the Community Secretary last week.
“Allowing mayors to shape technical pathways and provide work placements for young people, building back into colleges and schools from the needs of the regional economy is the way to support more young people into work. So is prioritising more accessible community-based mental health services as we announced in the summer.
“This will be a major part of our response to the forthcoming Milburn report, which will follow its publication in the autumn. For it to work, a more intentional approach to the reindustrialisation of Britain is required. We will support all parts of the country to take more public control over investment strategy, learning from the Greater Manchester model of a consolidated good growth fund, drawn from their own funds, prudent loan borrowing and fragmented budgets held by government bodies.
“We will back local industrial strategies, a policy of the Theresa May government I am happy to revive by identifying priority sectors and developing the triple helix approach to economic development by entwining business, academia and government behind the plan.
“This is the way we will build a pro-business culture and an innovation-led economy in all parts of the UK, finally capturing the long-term benefits of the invention that is in the DNA of our nation, backing our start-ups and scale-ups to stay in the UK where they were founded.”
Burnham told the House: “When I stood outside Downing Street six weeks ago, I said Britain needs a circuit breaker after a decade of turbulence, negativity, point scoring and divisive politics. This is what I have outlined today. A clear, coherent, and credible approach to growth that can unlock a feeling of positivity and possibility in every postcode in Britain.
“Our job in here is to make it real by taking a place first rather than party first approach. It starts with reasserting basic standards for Britain, that this is a country where no one sleeps rough and no community is blighted by an illegal waste tip. And from there, working together to build a new sense of optimism around the country.
“We can make this next decade better than the last. We can lift the prospects of all our people and places. We can put more power into every postcode. We can let Britain believe again. We can bring back hope.”
Bylines Network Gazette is out!
The latest Bylines Network Gazette is out now. Become a Friend of Bylines Network or upgrade to a paid Substack subscription, and you will get access to a vital collection of citizen articles and stories.
Journalism by the people, for the people.
