North East devolution deal will 'benefit whole city', say Sunderland's leaders

Key progress has been made by local authorities across the North East towards a £4.2billion devolution deal that will see a regional mayor elected next May.

A public consultation on the “minded to” proposals took place from January 26 until March 23 this year, with results showing 61 per cent support for the governance of the project from the 3,235 who responded.

The seven local councils in the area must agree to send those results to Levelling Up secretary Michael Gove, ready for him to make an order in Parliament that would formalise the new mayoral arrangements.

Sunderland City Council’s cabinet approved the findings and submitting the reports at a meeting on Friday (June 2).

Councillor Claire Rowntree, deputy council leader, speaking at the meeting, said the “majority of responses have been positive” and the devolved powers are “absolutely welcome.”

She said: “There is particularly strong support for devolution around transport, skills, employment and adult education.

“I think we’ve got a really good opportunity to make this work. We can get a lot from this deal which will benefit the whole city and the region.”

She added although “some concerns” had been raised during the consultation it is “not considered these represent a fundamental” issue in terms of moving ahead with the deal.

Councillor Linda Williams acknowledged although there is some “nervousness” they “need to make it work”.

She added: “This is the only deal in town and if we don’t go for it we’re going to miss out therefore it’s up to us collectively to ensure that that works.”

Councillor Paul Edgeworth, leader of the Liberal Democrats on the council, called for guarantees to ensure Sunderland will get its fair share of funding from the deal.

He also argued they should have put the deal to a referendum, which he said could have been done on the same day as the recent local elections, and hit out at the “pretty derisory” number of responses to it in the city.

Speaking at the meeting, he said: “I don’t think there was a clear way for people to say whether or not they wanted to be governed by a new politician.

“There is a genuine concern from people that in the past they feel that councils in Tyneside take the lion’s share of money.”

Patrick Melia, chief executive at Sunderland City Council, said they were not required under statutory terms to hold a referendum and it “wouldn’t be relevant” in regards to what they had to do to pass such tests.

He added: “We’ve done everything that’s statutorily required and we’ve gone above and beyond that to say that we’ve consulted.

“Every authority should get an appropriate share of the funding to meet their priorities over the course of the 30 years.”

The other six North East councils involved in the devolution deal are Newcastle, South Tyneside, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Northumberland and County Durham.

The proposals would establish a new North East Mayoral Combined Authority, while the existing North of Tyne Combined Authority and North East Combined Authority would cease to operate.