Manchester can be an example to the rest of the country according to the Chancellor George Osbourne who was speaking in the city yesterday.
It has been a long held belief of Mr Osbourne that he can balance the countries London-centric economy by pulling together the northern cities of Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester to form a northern economic powerhouse.
Mr Osbourne has praised the courage and imagination of Manchester’s civic leaders in their support for his ‘revolutionary’ plans to devolve power to the city under the authority of a Mayor.
Mr Osbourne said: “Manchester is a powerful brand known all over the globe. It will have a new, elected champion to represent it and promote it to the rest of the world.
“I want other cities with other champions.”
Plans to devolve power over policing, skills, housing, transport and the highly publicised £6billion health and social care budget will all come into play following the mayoral elections scheduled for 2017.
Already a change is coming over the north of the country, unemployment has fallen by 20% and employment has risen by 150,000 in the last year.
Mr Osbourne sees the potential for the Manchester model to be rolled out in other cities across the country.
It is a system that the Chancellor sees as having been effective across the globe and has taken a firm stance on regions looking to follow Manchester’s example.
He said: “I’m not interested in anymore half-way house deals. We will transfer major powers only to those cities who choose to have a directly elected metro-wide mayor.”
Later this month a new City Devolution Bill that will provide a legal framework for any city to follow in the path of Greater Manchester in implementing a Mayoral devolution deal.
Image courtesy of altogetherfool via FlickR, with thanks.
