Yorkshire hits dead end in transport cash fight

With less than a month to go until the crucial post-2015 spending review, when Chancellor George Osborne will set out which tranches of Government funding are to be handed to local areas under Lord Heseltine’s programme for regional growth, Patrick McLoughlin has suggested only decisions over “small projects” will be devolved to the regions.

His words follow cautious comments from Business Secretary Vince Cable about the scale of regional devolution likely to be announced by Mr Osborne on June 26, and have left senior business figures in the region admitting privately they expect little more than lip service to be paid to Lord Heseltine’s radical plan.

Mr McLoughlin, the MP for Derbyshire Dales, yesterday gave the green light for 62 minor road schemes across the country in a bid to reduce bottlenecks and cut congestion. Eight schemes across Yorkshire have been approved, including a new link road in Pontefract and junction improvements along strategic A-roads.

But speaking to the Yorkshire Post, Mr McLoughlin suggested that while similar small-scale projects may well be decided at a local level in the future, decisions over larger schemes – such as the long-awaited £160m overhaul of the A63 in Hull – will always be taken at Whitehall.

“Following the Heseltine plan, we are doing a lot of devolution down to the local areas,” Mr McLoughlin said. “However, I think there will always be the big infrastructure projects.

“If I take the A63 through Hull, for instance; that is always going to be a project of national significance, to a degree. Taking out those roundabouts and making it much more of a through road and putting some bridges in there... We’re talking there of a scheme in the region of £160m.

“So those are always going to be much, much bigger projects. (But) small projects like this, yes.”

Lord Heseltine’s plan to kick-start growth by devolving billions of pounds to local areas to spend was met with near-universal acclaim when he published his report for the Treasury last year.

Mr Osborne said he would implement most of the Tory peer’s 89 recommendations, and suggested the exact amount of money due to be devolved after 2015 would be unveiled in the spending review.

But Lord Heseltine warned in April that a “battle” was taking place in Whitehall as Cabinet Ministers fought to keep control of their powers and departmental budgets. He called on local MPs and business leaders to lobby the Government to prevent the plan being watered down.

Mr McLoughlin’s comments yesterday are the latest to suggest the battle is being lost.

In April Mr Cable said large-scale devolution of funding to local enterprise partnerships as envisaged by Lord Heseltine is “not going to happen”, and set out a series of areas within his own department where he insists spending must remain at a national level.

Meanwhile Eric Pickles, the Communities Secretary, has unveiled plans to restrict the ability of council leaders in West Yorkshire and York to introduce a new levy on council tax bills to create an ambitious £1bn transport fund to invest in major schemes across the local area.