Jennifer Williams

It was a niche interest among both govts wasn’t it, arguably stronger under thatcher, but did it ever become urgent? Osborne concluded it was important but even then I’m not sure it was classed urgent

ie, k don’t strongly remember it in the 90s but I also don’t think it started with Brexit

Politically, though, from this end of the country, it is a question that’s asked all the time. It wasn’t when I was growing up, and it’s not something that can be put down to any (?) increase salience of London vs everywhere in recent years, because it was there already

As in, look at this nice thing London has, why can’t we have it

That’s not, incidentally, me saying I’m ok with that. Governments have the ability to change those odds if they can be bothered and they had a role in changing Manchester’s.

Has anyone here argued (Burnham?) that it’s what London *wants*? The sensible argument is surely that it has happened by economic, and by extension political, default. To back not-the-south-east has been long odds, and so you end up where we are.

A footnote: Burnham has always seemed, to me, uneasy with the politics of the skyline in particular. Sometimes celebratory, sometimes critical, depending on the audience. And there *is* a tension between the politics and the economics: always has been. This narrative is intended to square that.

Yep the core of GM is moving very fast indeed

Short term, will be interesting to see whether people in those towns notice what’s been proposed, given the number of levelling up cap ex projects promised over the years. Also, whether people will approve of £44m being put into the refurb of Kendals

There is a second political strategy imho. GM is not as robust as it looks. One or two Reform led councils could completely disrupt the entire show, which is predicated on everyone largely moving as one. This is partly intended to futureproof a collective investment strategy and its principle

Yes but they’re not in GM. This is the politics of GM

But it will at least give Labour cllrs in outlying areas something to brandish at the locals: look, we ARE getting something from the GM project

The new/reframed investment fund is an attempt to square that circle, although the economics still shine through: the most detailed and immediate of its schemes are still - inevitably from an investment point of view - where the returns are higher: the city centre, and its vicinity

But agglomeration economics has not kept pace with post Brexit politics. Labour are now looking over their shoulders at Reform in towns where the city centre growth message is a harder sell

When the GM “project” was really coming into public view 10 years ago, the politics could just about withstand the idea that you start with the city centre, economically, and that rising tide will lift all boats. In some cases that process has indeed begun: eg the agglomeration effects in Stockport

I’d suggest the more significant element may be the politics of reframing this as being about “good growth” (read: the outlying towns)

But the HIF was itself the product of devolution. So like I say, it’s definitely something made possible by that

Is it over hyped? Well let’s say GM has not lost the ability to talk itself up. Really it is the expansion of an approach that has previously included the Housing Investment Fund, which led to the skyscrapers. In policy terms it’s now bigger and broader in scope, with new devo £

I meant to do a thread on this but got sidetracked. So a couple of thoughts…

Nice bit of snark from the Northern Agenda

Yes, I’ve not looked at it too closely but it seems to be based on the fact they’ll be taller than the former DWP building. The thing that makes me sad personally isn’t the scale but the loss of the genuinely socially mixed retail use in the precinct, but that ship has sailed

Well, it’s not new - it’s already been in the works for at least eight years and that’s in a city that loves to build. Which shows how long this stuff takes

Lessons from Manchester for Labour’s new town agenda [FREE TO READ] Plus, rumblings about a levy on international student fees

It was one of the points made to me when I walked around Collyhurst for this piece, about a huge new development aimed at rectifying that (now shortlisted as a new town). So much space doing nothing that could be sensibly occupied

on.ft.com/47TTmER

You can just see from walking around regional cities how un-dense they are. Even Manchester, which remains busy with a mega building spree, has a city centre that stops dead and turns into a series of sparsely developed gaps.

Greater Manchester to launch £1bn public investment fund [FREE TO READ] City region aims to capitalise on sustained economic growth with first fund of its kind

I often struggle to come up with tangible examples of English devolution but this is one. Greater Manchester is doing its own £1bn regeneration investment fund

on.ft.com/43InqRk

Clearly in govt Reform would probably go far further than the current trimming on the ground - SEND reform (although when I asked if he’d repeal the CFA 2014 he didn’t answer), pensions reform. Yet as it stands, a lot of these councils are looking to “fair funding” to get them out of a hole

At the press conference yesterday Tice rejected the suggestion - from the Telegraph - that this crisis came from austerity. He said it was about waste. Is six litter pickers waste?

Ultimately Durham - and other councils - are hoping the govt’s fair funding review helps them out. But as Tony Travers says, the savings look familiar: I don’t know how many stories I’ve written over the years of these sorts of comparatively small but extremely tangible cuts to neighbourhoods

Reform council cuts back on litter picking and gardening in bid to fill shortfall [FREE TO READ] The measures underline the financial realities facing the party after its first six months in local government

A good eg of the financial reality facing Reform in local govt

Durham is looking at hiking parking charges and permits, litter picking/weed killing/summer planting reductions and the “rationalisation” of libraries, leisure centres and tips, as it tries to hold down council tax

on.ft.com/4oPaVvI

WHY IS IT LIKE THIS EVERY TIME