Whether it’s Ben Houchen pledging to build a new hospital on Teesside, Kim McGuinness looking to save jobs at Hitachi, or Andy Burnham bringing buses in the North West back under public control, regional and city mayors are now established and ambitious power brokers in English politics. And as mentioned in my previous piece for …
The party’s over! The recent metro mayoral elections constitute the endpoint of a process that began back in the 1930s, if not earlier. Our devolution policy landscape is littered with decades of ill-fated initiatives — centralised post-war regional policies, the short-lived Tyne-Wear County Council, the disastrous referendum on a directly elected regional assembly, the establishment …
Complex policies need time to demonstrate whether, or to what extent, they have worked. The recent report on the impact of Sure Start is a case in point. Only now, after two decades, is it possible to show the positive impact on health, family functioning and academic achievement. Or take the new tobacco and vapes …
One of the most iconic locations in the region is the stretch of the River Wear in Durham City approaching Crook Hall. Linger for a while and enjoy the rhythm of the river. Little luck is needed to spot cormorants, herons, sand martins, swans, the perpetually hungry wild geese, and even the elusive otters. Glance …
“Having listened to representations I have decided now is not the time to abolish the Household Support Fund… we will therefore continue it at current levels for another six months,” proclaimed the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, in his budget statement. Cue relief from those making such representations — 90 Parliamentarians from across the political divide, local …
October 1963. The Beatles have been at number one for six weeks with She Loves You. Meanwhile, in 10 Downing Street, a report of huge significance lands on the desk of the new Conservative prime minister, Alec Douglas-Home — the Robbins Report on the future of higher education. At a time when only 5% of …
As the race for the regional mayoralties in Tees Valley and the North East hots up, it would be easy to forget the very existence of the 12 local councils that will continue to sit alongside them. It’s a paradox that while so much political energy is being invested in new regional tiers of governance, …
The date of the next General Election might still be uncertain, but one thing we can be sure of is that this year will witness several significant mayoral elections across England. Once the preserve of constitutional scholars, English devolution is now political centrestage, and nowhere more so than here in the north east where two …
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