Tories urge Rishi Sunak to establish 'Northern Powerhouse 2.0'

John Stevenson, the chair of the Northern Research Group (NRG) of Tory MPs, has said that he, alongside colleagues representing seats in the North, will push for “Northern Powerhouse 2.0” to be in the next election manifesto for the party.

This is set to include policies on 500,000 new homes, as well as a east-west Elizabeth Line for the North called “The Charles Line” and a Minister for the North.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post ahead of the group’s summer conference later this week, the Carlisle MP said that it was vital that the party moves back towards a stance to “rebalance” the economy, rather than “levelling up”.

Mr Stevenson said that levelling up had “distracted” his party from its “core agenda” which began under George Osborne, but that now it was being “rekindled”.

“That’s why many of us want to go back to the Northern Powerhouse concept, because I think that resonated,” he added.

Mr Osborne, the former chancellor, will also be attending the conference, and it is hoped that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, will also attend.

The NRG conference on Friday will see the party discuss policy issues in order to put together a “Northern Manifesto” to launch around the Conservative conference in the Autumn.

The group’s chairman says he feels members of his party are receptive to proposals, with the aim for its policies to be included in the Tory manifesto at the next election.

“Our idea effectively is: Let's repower the North,” said Mr Stevenson.

“Northern Powerhouse 2.0 is our idea for a manifesto commitment.

“The way to do that is to rebalance the economy and pull the North up towards the level of productivity and economic output that you see in other parts of the country.”

Mr Stevenson earlier this week called for 500,000 new homes, available to buy or rent, in the next Parliament as part of this plan, adding that this should not be done in isolation without transport improvements for the North.

“There’s got to be public sector investment in things like connectivity and infrastructure, as well as private sector investment.”

The senior Tory added that this needs to be done by moving away from north-south connectivity, such as HS2, and towards east-west.

“A really good example of a success story is the Elizabeth line,” he said.

“Absolutely brilliant, 100 kilometres, 18 billion pound investment, great improvement for connectivity within the South, supported by people who will never use the line, which is a good thing.

“We have to replicate that in the North. I'm calling it the Charles Line.

“We've got to improve the connectivity from Liverpool across to places like Leeds going your Manchesters your Bradfords across to, if possible, Hull.”

“That benefits the whole of the North, even if people in Carlisle aren't using it.”

It comes after The Yorkshire Post revealed in February that Rishi Sunak had broken half of his pledges to the Northern Research Group which he made in the summer’s leadership contest.

Asked whether he thinks Rishi Sunak will be more receptive to following up on the group’s demands this time around, Mr Stevenson said: “I think having a Prime Minister who represents a Northern seat, he does have some understanding of some of the challenges of the North.”

He said that where the NRG may have “come up short” previously was that it had not sufficiently explained why, for example, there needs to be a Minister for the North, one of the four pledges signed up to by Rishi Sunak, which he did not follow through on.

Mr Stevenson added that the idea of a dedicated Northern minister needs to be articulated so that someone in Cornwall says “I understand why you’ve got that” rather than “you’ve got one, we want one”