City leaders urged to stand together in shake-up

Aug 31 2010 by Adrian Pearson, The Journal

CITY leaders have been warned they have just six days “to save the North East” as the Government prepares the biggest regional shake-up in decades.

Councils and businesses will next week hand over submissions for city-wide partnerships that will be able to bid for a portion of the £1bn growth fund.

Thousands of potential jobs depend upon these partnerships having a strong enough voice in central Government to win funding against more than 40 others across the UK.

But leading figures have warned plans to create four to five local enterprise partnerships in the North East will mean competing groups based around Newcastle and Sunderland could lose out to major cities such as Leeds and Manchester.

A group led by Sir John Hall has urged councils to either come together to form one partnership from Durham to Northumberland, bringing with it the authority needed to convince Whitehall civil servants to take it seriously, or go all out to secure Government backing for a new regional body.

On Monday it is hoped a formal plea will be ready to hand over to ministers asking for permission to set up a powerful regional body trusted to take over Government functions seen as vital if the region wants control of its own destiny.

If the bid is turned down the Government will have effectively scrapped all regional structures in just four months.

Councils will also hand in their local enterprise partnership bids – the new structures the coalition Government insists are the right way to replace region-wide quangos.