Osborne reaffirms commitment to ‘devolution revolution’

Chancellor George Osborne reaffirmed the government’s commitment to devolution in the 2016 Budget, telling MPs that ’the devolution revolution is taking hold’.

Osborne said that more powers would be devolved to local regions to give them greater control over their prosperity. As a part of this, Osborne pledged that 100 per cent of local government resources will be generated in their local area by the end of this Parliament and said that the Greater London Authority will move to full retention of business rates from April 2017.

New devolution deals were also announced for the West of England, East Anglia, and Greater Lincolnshire, which builds on existing deals with Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, the North East and Tees Valley and Sheffield City Region. The Chancellor confirmed that these areas would be run by an elected mayor, meaning that, in total, 57 per cent of the population of the North of England will be covered by an elected mayor.

Additionally, to further support growth in the north, Osborne gave the green light to the High Speed 3 railway between Leeds and Manchester, committing £60 million to develop plans to improve transport connections between northern cities.

Further infrastructure funding was also announced, including an extra £161 million to accelerate the upgrades to the M62 to a four lane ‘smart motorway’.

In response to criticism for the floods that affected the UK in the past few months, Osborne also confirmed that £700 million would be invested into improving flood defences, with the money being raised from a 0.5 per cent raise to insurance premium taxes. Of that £700 million, £150 million will be invested in flood defence schemes in Leeds, Cumbria, Calder Valley and York with the aim of better protecting around 7,400 properties.

£25 million will go towards flood defences in Carlisle, as well as £130 million to be spent repairing roads and bridges in Cumbria, West Yorkshire, Northumberland, Greater Manchester, Durham and North Yorkshire.