Minister makes power shift pledge

Mr Clark described the vision of devolution set out by Lord Heseltine in a report for the Government last year as “hugely exciting” and insisted he was “passionate” about moving powers out of London.

He was speaking to the Yorkshire Post after Business Secretary Vince Cable earlier this week appeared to rein in expectations over how far-reaching the Government’s plans for devolution will be.

Lord Heseltine’s report last year suggested as much as £50bn currently spent by Government departments could be put in a “single funding pot” to be devolved to local areas.

However, Mr Clark yesterday stopped short of promising the Government would create a specific pot of cash taken out of Whitehall budgets for regions to spend.

And in comments that risk disappointing those looking for a more fundamental shift, he echoed Mr Cable’s view that the next stage of devolution will be an extension of the existing ‘city deals’ programme where councils come together to ask for power and money.

He said: “My view is that if an area makes a compelling case for doing locally what is currently done nationally then it should be entitled to be heard.

“If it is a case that is convincing they should be able to have the powers and money that go with it.

“So to that extent all of the areas of Government policy I think should be subject to challenge from local areas.”

The Yorkshire Post is campaigning for the swift implementation of the Heseltine proposals as part of the Give Us A Fair Deal campaign.

While the Coalition has publicly backed the Heseltine report the precise detail of how it will be put into practice is not expected to emerge until the Government’s spending review in June and Mr Clark hinted some aspects are still to be hammered out.

“What the Chancellor and other Ministers have said is that we will consider in the spending review how to respond.

“We are very clear that powers and resources will be available to places. The decision as to whether to follow Michael [Heseltine] in putting a single number on it will take a time.”

The Leeds and Sheffield city regions have already struck ‘city deals’ with the Government in areas such as transport and skills, and negotiations are under way between Ministers, Humber councils and the Humber Local Enterprise Partnership over a similar agreement.

Mr Clark said Government’s response to the Heseltine proposals would involve negotiating a series of “local growth deals” modelled on city deals.

“If you can demonstrate as you surely can that there is something in it for the local area as well as national economy, if you do things differently, you should be able to strike that deal,” he said.

Mr Clark said the Leeds City Region had been “ahead of the pack” in signing a city deal and it was likely to be in the “vanguard” of areas taking advantage of the Heseltine reforms.

The Minister was at the Leeds office of law firm Addleshaw Goddard last night to speak at an event, organised by Leeds and Partners, discussing the future of the city as a hub for financial and other professional services.

He told the audience that financial services could not be seen in isolation and needed to work in partnership with other sectors and connect with local communities in order to create sustainable economic success for the region.