COMMENT: As with most of the population, I am ineligible to vote in the forthcoming election for our next prime minister. But, as with most of the population, I am glued to the drama. And, having witnessed the first so-called “leadership debate”, I continue to call – desperately – for a “courage economy”.
To hell with all the candidates’ frantic attempts to be “more Brexit than thou” with their wholly unrealistic pledges. And with their half-baked, economically illiterate (and wholly unworkable) fiscal promises. We need a leader who will unite our nation.
The members of the Conservative and Unionist Party should be looking for a pledge to the courage economy. That means they should be looking for the candidate who promises renewed vigour for nothing short of full-on devolution.
I am not alone in thinking this. Last week, 33 of the North’s daily newspapers and websites ran the same front page story, “Power Up the North” they screamed, urging the next Conservative leader and prime minister to adopt a range of policies, including – amongst other things – giving devolved powers and self-determination to people in the North, committing funding immediately to make Northern Powerhouse Rail a national priority, and putting full weight behind a bespoke Industrial Strategy for the North of England to enable every sector of the economy, from manufacturing to farming, to flourish.
The papers unanimously decreed “Power up the North should be a leadership issue and it should be a general election issue”.
And they’re right. It is a stark fact that, as a nation, we remain appallingly divided. And our need to restore our national pride has never been stronger.
The northern lobby is seriously on to something: if the UK is to continue to stand on the world stage, we urgently need a revolution in our cities and towns, led by local leaders working with their local businesses and residents, together with our universities and other public services. Post Brexit, we need to repurpose and recalibrate our economic and political geography, bottom up.
And we should start with the North, recognising the latent talent and capability of all of our great nation, which needs to be empowered. To realise the potential of devolution, we need turbo-charged national backing for local leadership. And we need to create conditions where the benefits of action are felt by the most disadvantaged communities. So we must be joined up.
City regions can act faster and more dynamically than a national government. And this is proven time and time again (it was one of the most stark findings of the work of the Grimsey Review, that without one, unequivocal, local leader, who could thump the table – or bare her or his teeth – your town centre regeneration plan wouldn’t stand a cat’s chance).
And whether you are concerned with the regeneration of a high street, or dealing with local homelessness, or upskilling the 16-19 year olds, or securing a juicy morsel of inward investment – or whatever it might be – the mantra should always be “show me the problem, show me who’s in charge”, with powers and resources properly vested in local leaders.
There could be no more potent response to our divided nation than to prise power from the grip of Whitehall and devolve it to the most local level. Starting with our northern cities, but not stopping there.
After all, what have we got to lose? Whatever we are doing now sure is not working. We need to change. And we need to support a local response, bottom up, to heal our poor divided and beleaguered post Brexit nation.
It is time to put a place-based industrial strategy for our northern cities on to amphetamines, and widen this strategy to cover the economy, transport, heath, education and housing.
Every northern town or city (every UK town or city, come to that) needs a full-blown business plan, which should be resourced and be empowered by Whitehall.
Please, Conservatives, vote for a leader who will deliver this transformative potential. Start with full-blown support for HS2, but then go further, much further, binding government departments into delivering locally. Create a courage economy. And quickly now.
Jackie Sadek is chief operating officer at UK Regeneration
