Petty rows and territorial disputes are sabotaging the formation of a North-East “super council” and putting thousands of jobs at risk, a group of influential business leaders has claimed.
In a joint letter to the Government the consortium of property developers and investment lawyers says that a unified authority would allow them to market the region as one location for potential employers. Ministers have already hinted they would devolve a range of powers with the formation of a new North-East regional authority.
The recently-formed unified pressure group includes two separate property bodies — Developing Consensus and G9 — and was formed after new inter-council talks appear to have hit yet more problems.
Both Developing Consensus – whose members include property firms such as UK Land Estates and Silverlink and who, between them, are responsible for some of the North-East’s most successful business parks – and G9 claim to have attracted more than £1.25bn to the region.
The latest round of disputes erupted when Sunderland City Council decided it wanted to halt plans to merge behind-the-scenes roles in transport and job creation. It fears it would handover too much power and potentially see Newcastle benefit at the cost of other areas. South Tyneside Council has also expressed fears any new authority would be nothing more than a “talking shop”.
The seven local authorities — all members of the Association of North-East Councils — which would lose powers to a regional authority are: County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.
“Businesses across the region are very clear on what we want from our elected leaders. The North-East should not be top of the league when it comes to unemployment. Our main ambition has to be reduce unemployment,” said Tim Evans, a partner with Knight Frank.
From a property developer’s perspective: “The only people who acknowledge local authority boundaries are the people who work in local authorities. For businesses they are irrelevant,” said developer Adam Serfontein.
“If you look at the councils in Leeds or Manchester or Birmingham, they are not fighting like this – they have one point of contact for inward investment and it works.”
Michelle Percy is a director of Silverlink Holdings, the firm behind the development of Newcastle’s Stephenson Quarter. She said businesses in the region had put aside competition to work together, and it was time council leaders followed that example.
“If you look at Greater Manchester and its combined authority, they will have had all the same concerns, all the same behind the scenes rows, but they have put that aside and worked together quickly to take a lead. What is obvious is that they have had clear leadership.
“If you look at the population we have here, at the available land, the workforce, other cities could only wish they had that,” she added. “We have a real chance to raise our game and come together on this.”
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