Michael Gove arrives in Gateshead to sign devolution deal

Levelling Up Secretary Michael Gove was in the North East where he signed a devolution deal.

Council leaders across Tyne and Wear, Northumberland and County Durham met in Gateshead on Friday to sign the £4.2bn agreement.

The deal will provide funding over the next 30 years and see devolved powers over skills, transport and housing.

However, a public consultation and review needs to conclude before any deal becomes legislative.

Mr Gove previously said such a deal would give "local leaders more power" over the how the region is run.

On Friday, he admitted that the region had "sometimes been overlooked," but said the devolution deal is "bigger, better and bolder".

Previous attempts to unite councils in the north of the region in similar deals have collapsed before, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

In a signing ceremony at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Mr Gove said the deal is an "investment of hope and trust in the region and its people".

When asked if the deal was sufficient to make up for Tory cuts to local government funding over the last decade, he said: "I think it is important that the North East presents, as it so often does, a confident face to the rest of the UK and the rest of the world.

"We have some of the strongest academic institutions, some of the highest value industrial jobs, as well as some of the most attractive places to live in the whole of the country here.

"Yes, I acknowledge there have been difficulties in the past but today is an opportunity to shine the sunlight on the North East and to attract more investment into the region."

The deal would see the creation of the North East Mayoral Combined Authority (MCA) which would replace the existing North of Tyne MCA and mayor, as well as the non-mayoral North East Combined Authority.

It would cover local authorities across Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Northumberland and County Durham but would not include the Tees Valley, which has its own combined authority.

Amanda Hopgood, Liberal Democrat leader of County Durham's coalition administration, said it was "a historic day for the North East that shows we can work together".

However, Dame Norma Redfearn, who is the Labour mayor of North Tyneside, said she hoped it would be the last time she has to sign a deal, saying she had been working on a package to bring the region together for the last decade.

Gateshead Council leader Martin Gannon, who previously claimed the deal was "not a good" one, said he still wanted more funding.

But the Labour politician did say it was right to sign the deal, because securing funding for the region had proved "extremely hard".

The public consultation, which began on Thursday, will run for eight weeks before the seven councils involved will review the responses and prepare a report for Mr Gove.

It will then be taken through Parliament in order to establish the new North East Mayoral Combined Authority.

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