Devolution deal for northeast England is cancelled after Javid fails to secure agreement
![Sajid Javid: ‘Local people will miss out on over £1bn of investment.’ But will they? [Image: Gareth Fuller/PA].](http://voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/160909-Sajid-Javid.png)
Sajid Javid: ‘Local people will miss out on over £1bn of investment.’ But will they? [Image: Gareth Fuller/PA].
Council leaders from Sunderland, Durham, South Tyneside and Gateshead, who voted against the deal, argued that they had not had sufficient assurances from Theresa May’s government about hundreds of millions of pounds of EU funding pledged before the Brexit vote on June 23.
There were also concerns about increasing council tax to pay for a new directly elected mayor.
So George Osborne’s legacy lies in tatters. Considering all the harm he has done, it isn’t enough.
George Osborne’s northern powerhouse legacy has been thrown into doubt after the government pulled the plug on devolution in the north-east of England. Sajid Javid, the communities secretary, said the multimillion-pound deal was “off the table” after council leaders failed to agree on whether to accept devolved powers in their current form.
On Tuesday, council leaders were split by a single vote on whether to accept a deal that would include a raft of new powers and £30m a year in return for establishing an elected mayor.
The announcement is a blow to Osborne’s northern powerhouse vision, with the north-east now cast out of the devolution agenda and two other swaths of northern England – North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire – yet to agree deals with the government.
Source: Sajid Javid: devolution deal ‘off the table’ for north-east of England | Politics | The Guardian
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A few years ago the North East voted against a regional mayor but Osborne reintroduced it.
Co. Durham asked the electorate if they wanted one again and we voted No. Other councils have seen the light and also voted against it.
There is no such thing as EU funding, the EU does not generate any monies it just returns a small proportion.
That’s disingenuous. Do you never refer to government funding, or council funding? Once the money has come to the EU, it belongs to the EU and is distributed according to EU priorities. EU funding.