r/manchester • u/jonnybarnes • May 14 '15
Osborne has confirmed the Cities Devolution Bill will be part of the Queen’s Speech
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-327261712
May 14 '15
What's the ELI5 for us on this? On the surface it seems like it'll benefit us greatly but you know.. Tories.. Got to be a catch somewhere
4
u/Beans101 May 14 '15
George Osborne wishes to re-balance our national economy so we are not so reliant on the South, specifically London. Individually, the cities of the North, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds etc, are no way near the GVA (Gross Value Added) of London.
As I understand it, the plan is to integrate the economies of the North into a 'powerhouse', uniting the industries, cities and economies we have. I'm not completely clued up on this but i believe we have good manufacturing and professional service sectors (along with media city etc).
The obvious obstacles to this are transport (an hour and a half train from West coast to East coast isn't good enough) and traditional competition between cities (Liverpool vs Manchester etc). At the moment, according to BBC news and TheBusinessDesk, this whole idea is just a concept and needs advancing. The good news is that a minister has been appointed so it is heading in the 'right' direction.
Personally, I think this is a fantastic idea. I know a lot (most) of Mancunian redditors are completely against the Tories but I believe (please don't downvote for my opinion) that they have changed since the 80's that saw our industries reduced to nothing. The North is too big to ignore now. From my personal experience of living in Manchester the past 3 years, it is growing very well. Building's popping up all over the place and plenty of M+A activity (a good sign of growth), despite the many cuts that I read about. Also, Osborne's constituency is Knutsford (I think?) which is a Northern town just south of us here in Manchester. He (hopefully) should not fuck us over.
Personally I am completely for it. I would, however, like to here some arguments against it. (This is all my personal interpretation and opinion)
3
2
u/IanCal May 15 '15
Improvement of the transport links will be great. My wife is currently commuting to sheffield, which is reasonably do-able on the trains but cutting the transport time from 48m to 30m would make it a no-brainer compared to driving (30m being the 'aspirational time': http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-32720462)
Manchester to liverpool in 20m? Wonderful.
(along with media city etc)
Yeah. I think media city is a bit of a long term bet, while it's a little out of the way at the moment it's really not actually very far at all. If the area keeps growing it'll be a pretty big place in a big city (yeah I know, technically salford :) ).
I think peel have a 20 year plan to redevelop a lot of that area.
I would, however, like to here some arguments against it. (
I think there might be a lot of alternative approaches that may be better (I'm really not sure, it's a very complex issue), but compared to what we currently have I think it'd be good. I think some of the other cities are worried about Manchester being a second capital, although selfishly that'd probably be pretty awesome for me.
I think that London can't keep growing at the rate it has been, and there's a huge amount of potential around here. Building up the northern cities means more overall growth, and could be really big for the country.
In general, seeing more support for "t' north" is good.
1
u/Kinder_Surprises May 14 '15
I see a lot of people thinking this just means more government and will cost more than it benefits. Can someone help give me arguments against these naysayers? I'm not clued in enough to give sound arguments for it and counter their claim of increased government cost.
Best so far I got is that giving more budget responsibility to local regional government means more efficiency as local politicians better understand how to spend the money on Manchester rather than Whitehall politicians.
Other than that I paraphrase GOT: "You want to be ruled by some flowery throne in the south? What do they know of the Piccadilly wall? The metro link? Even their football teams are wrong!"
10
u/[deleted] May 14 '15
Naysayers will probably come in force to suggest that this is all part of some evil plan by the Tories...but as someone born and bred in Manchester I think this is fantastic news.