The mayor of the Tees Valley is the only Northern metro mayor to not sign a joint letter to the chancellor ahead of this month’s Budget. Conservative Ben Houchen has said that he does not agree with policy positions laid out in the communiqué from northern leaders.
Mayor Houchen highlighted the removal of the two child benefit cap as a policy where he deviates from his Labour and Reform counterparts – he argued that hard work should be rewarded and stated that he does not support the removal of the cap. The Tees Valley mayor did however say that he continues to work constructively with other mayors in the North.
Uniting for investment
As a collective, most Northern mayors have called on Rachel Reeves to abolish the two child benefit cap and commit to vast railway line upgrades. Ahead of the Budget later this month, mayors including Labour’s Kim McGuinness and Andy Burnham have written to Rachel Reeves to demand “game-changing investment” in the North of England.
Under the banner of the ‘Great North’ partnership, launched earlier this year, the leaders have asked for help to “unlock the North’s full potential”. They have added their names to the pleas for the two child cap to be lifted in order to help combat child poverty, with the mayors saying its removal would lift more than 100,000 Northern children out of deprivation.
The mayors write: “Many Northern communities are disproportionately affected by the two child benefit cap, with higher rates of child poverty. Its impact is most acute in areas of entrenched disadvantage. Reversing the cap would lift around 630,000 children out of poverty nationwide — with the North seeing the greatest impact. It is one of the most cost-effective and immediate levers to reduce poverty and unlock opportunity. We must act. The children of the North cannot wait.”
Mayor Houchen however made the case that in “tough” economic times, the only acceptable way forward would be to slim down the welfare system.
Away from the cap, the letter calls on the chancellor to deliver the long-debated Northern Powerhouse Rail project in full to create a “spine that connects the North”. The demands of the chancellor also feature “devolved, stable, and long-term support for business growth” through the successor to the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and a replacement of the Rural England Prosperity Fund for rural areas.
Mayor McGuinness, who chairs the Great North collaboration, said: “The North of England has to be at the vanguard of the Government’s mission to unlock the growth the country and communities badly need.”
Who signed the letter
The letter was also signed by fellow Labour mayors David Skaith, Tracey Brabin, Oliver Coppard and Steve Rotheram, as well as Reform UK’s Hull and East Yorkshire mayor Luke Campbell.
On top of almost all of the North’s metro mayors, council leaders from across the political spectrum have put their name to the letter. These people are Reform’s Lancashire County Council leader Stephen Atkinson, Westmorland and Furness Council’s Liberal Democrat leader Jonathan Brook and the Labour leaders of both Cheshire West and Chester Council and Cumberland Council, Louise Gittens and Mark Fryer.
Ben Houchen comment
Responding to why his name was notably absent from the joint demands, Mayor Houchen said: “The letter outlines policy positions that I do not support, including the removal of the two child benefit cap. In tough economic times, hard work must be rewarded and doing anything to the welfare system other than slimming it down cannot be supported – particularly at a point where it looks like taxes on working people are going to go up!
“I will continue to work constructively and positively with the mayors on other matters I have always done.”
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