'Northern Big Bang': Wigan Council cabinet member says local authorities must be involved in 'radical' economy transformation plans

A report this week called for billions of pounds of private sector investment should be unlocked and used to create an economic ‘Big Bang for the North’, a ‘radical’ economic overhaul in the style of Thatcher’s sweeping changes during the 1980s.

The paper, from the Centre for Policy Studies and Northern Research Group of MPs, says more investment is needed to “level up” the economy and boost the North.

“A Northern Big Bang” sets out a series of recommendations on how to stimulate private sector investment and create a globally recognised, economic powerhouse in the North of England.

But Coun Nazia Rehman, the town hall’s Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Transformation, warned that any plans to reinvigorate flagging industrial towns will come to nothing if local authorities like Wigan Council are not given a seat at the table if discussions about the Northern Big Bang become a reality.

Coun Rehman said: “I welcome the investment in the North that this study has asked for. I also agree that it has to be radical, because it confirms the fears and concerns repeatedly expressed by local authorities like ours, who represent Northern communities. I would say it’s not only the lack of investment, but rather divestment, over more than a decade, cutting public funding and local authority budgets and public services that has brought us to a point where we desperately need that radical approach.

“I am not surprised that this report has asked for a ‘Northern Big Bang’ - we have been asking for it for more than a decade now. And so it is good that people in Government are recognising that need.”

“They need to include local councils. They need to include local voices.

“We are at the heart of communities, and it has been highlighted by the pandemic response, whether it was the distribution of PPE, the roll out of vaccinations, or distributing business grants, we gave been at the forefront from the start. It has highlighted the role of local authorities in this picture, and in any future investment that the Government is looking at.”

Coun Rehman added: “I would say that local authorities have to be included. They have to be given the ownership of any investment in the North. I am not confident that local authorities will be given their fair say. But this is what we desperately need.”

The borough’s MPs reacted both positively and sceptically when the report was published earlier this week, backing the idea of investment but questioning the Government’s ability to deliver.

Wigan MP Lisa Nandy, a member of the Centre for Towns campaign group, said: “The report is right to call for more investment in the North but ignores the divisions within the North itself.

“For decades towns like Wigan have been ignored or overlooked in favour of investment in our major cities in the hope the benefits would trickle out. You only need to take a walk down our high street to see that they haven’t. It beggars belief that this Conservative Government hasn’t yet realised that an economic model that has failed us for decades is not going to level up the north.

“After ten years of cutting funding for our NHS, our council and our local police services, it is time the Government woke up. We deserve our fair share of investment in towns across the North, the right to decide how to spend it and an end to the devastation the Tories have visited on our communities for a decade.

“Under cover of Covid they are cutting our direct rail link to Manchester Piccadilly, closing our town centre post office and standing aside while we lose major retailers like Debenhams and WH Smith alongside local pubs, restaurants and businesses.

“Despite a raft of election promises to level up the North this Tory Government is doing what it always does. Every single Northern Powerhouse promise has been broken. They simply cannot be trusted to deliver for us here in Wigan.”

Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue, while welcoming the idea of the Northern Big Bang, was sceptical about whether the government would take action. She also said the idea to replicate Thatcher’s radical overhaul filled her “with horror.”

Ms Fovargue said: “Whilst it is welcome that the report calls for investment in the North - frankly, we have heard this all before and action never follows the rhetoric from Government Ministers. The call to mimic the radical approach of the Thatcher Government fills me with horror as someone who lived through the era and saw the destruction, asset stripping and mass unemployment her policies inflicted on the north.”

On recommendations on planning Ms Fovargue added: “Some of the recommendations such as automatic approval of planning applications would remove local accountability and the ability of communities to shape future development.”

James Grundy, the Conservative MP for Leigh, said: "I think there are some interesting proposals in this document, although I should stress it does not represent Government policy, and there are some aspects that I do not think would work.

"We desperately need investment, regeneration and the well-paying jobs that creates in constituencies like Leigh, and I welcome that part of the report.

"I do, however, have concerns over some of the suggested new planning mechanisms in the report. I fear Wigan Council would game the system, deliberately refusing to determine controversial planning applications within the two month deadline so they automatically passed, then blaming the Government, or using the other criteria to pass planning applications in areas where the infrastructure could not support more development."

He added: "On that basis, I'd prefer to keep more protections in place for residents within the planning system, even as we deliver much needed regeneration for northern towns like Leigh."

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