Prime Minister Andy Burnham has asked No 10 North to start working with Cornwall Council on a devolution deal, with or without an elected mayor, and extended the same offer to other parts of England.
“For a long time, the country did not have ambitions for its regions outside of London – it even talked of the managed decline of Liverpool,” Mr Burnham told the Commons.
“It took the devolution of power out of this place, to allow our big city regions the ability to set new ambitions for themselves.
“Now, I want every single place across our regions and nations to be able to do the same, creating the conditions for good growth in every postcode.
“And in that spirit, I was glad to meet the Liberal Democrat leader of Cornwall Council (Leigh Frost) with the MP for Truro and Falmouth (Jane Kirkham), on my recent visit. I know, like many rural economies across the UK, Cornwall lacks a basic level of infrastructure, which in turn harms growth and holds back living standards and life chances, and I heard the cross-party call for a devolution deal.
“I understand concerns in this House about the potential emergence of a two-tier England between those with devolved power and those without, and I will not ignore them.
“So, I have asked No 10 North to begin work with Cornwall Council and its six MPs on a devolution deal, with or without an elected mayor and, I today extend the same offer to all parts of England without devolved power.”
Member of Parliament for South East Cornwall, Anna Gelderd, said: “It’s fantastic that Cornwall has been put front and centre in Andy’s first statement to Parliament as Prime Minister. For an area that has too often felt forgotten by Westminster, this is a clear signal that Cornwall matters and that our communities, industries and ambitions are being taken seriously.
"The Prime Minister has made clear that this government will work with MPs and local leaders in Cornwall, to give our communities the powers we need to drive growth and make decisions locally. I am proud to be part of a Labour government that is recognising Cornwall’s brilliant potential and I’ll continue working with colleagues from across the political spectrum, to make sure that South East Cornwall benefits from all opportunities on the table.”
Britain needs to be “blunt” about what has gone wrong in recent decades, Andy Burnham has said, as he addressed the House of Commons for the first time since becoming Prime Minister.
He hit out at the deindustrialisation and privatisation of the 1980s, and the impact of austerity and Brexit on regions of the UK outside of the South East and London.
“Unless we are blunt about what went wrong, we won’t turn things around. Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain,” the Prime Minister told the Commons.
Taking back public control over services and utilities will be at the centre of the Government’s efforts to create economic growth, the Prime Minister said.
He hit out at the “failed economic model” which had led to high streets across the country being left desolate, and described Britain’s water industry as “a leaking monument to that approach, a country run in the private rather than public interest”.
Mr Burnham added: “The Government I lead will be relentless, relentless in giving people and places what they were promised 10 years ago: ownership and control.
“And from that control over their destiny comes change and growth.”
A 10-year plan for Britain, laid out later this year, will make the case for “stronger public control over these essentials, making them work for people and places again”, Mr Burnham said.
Leading Greater Manchester as its mayor has “given me a clear theory of growth”, Mr Burnham claimed, adding: “I will apply it to all parts of the UK learning from what has been achieved in Greater Manchester.”
In his first outing in the Commons, the Prime Minister announced to MPs he will attend the Cop 31 climate summit in Turkey in November, as he pledged to “meet the climate challenge”.
Burnham Directs No 10 North to Begin Cornwall Devolution Work