Metro mayor Steve Rotheram has invited Boris Johnson's Levelling Up Minister Michael Gove to Liverpool to discuss how he and other Northern leaders can turn their ambitions into action.
The Liverpool City Region mayor today joined forces with other political and business leaders from across the North to set out how the region of 15 million people can lead what they describe as 'the Fourth Industrial Revolution' and help the Prime Minister deliver his 'levelling up' promises.
They will gather this morning at three coordinated events in Liverpool, Bradford and Gateshead to describe the five “gamechanger” requests which could help the North make a bigger contribution to the national economy and bridge the North-South health gap which widened during the pandemic. The video setting out their ideas can be found here.
Read more: Survey: What will 'Levelling Up' mean for Liverpool?
They have invited Michael Gove, the recently-appointed Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Secretary, to attend the planned Convention of the North event to be held in Liverpool in January to turn the Government's words into action.
The last Convention of the North in September 2019 saw Boris Johnson and a host of senior Tories descend on Rotherham in South Yorkshire in the months before the General Election.
Mr Rotheram, who will mark the document’s launch with a business roundtable in Liverpool focusing on the opportunities for the North to lead the transition to Net Zero, said "the Government’s focus on levelling up and its ambitious net zero targets could create massive opportunities for the North".
He added: "The pandemic has hit our combined region harder than anywhere else though, so to close the life expectancy gap and ensure people in the North have the same opportunities as people in other parts of the UK, we need to move into action now.
“We have some phenomenal assets in the North that can help the Government meet its commitments. We’re making an offer today to work with the Government to deliver on the commitments. In return we’re asking the Government to back the North.
"Give us the tools to lead the country’s transition to a net zero economy and take decisions about the North, in the North. I look forward to welcoming Mr Gove to Liverpool next year so we can get to work and turn our collective northern ambition into action.”
The "gamechanger" requests to government focus on leading the 'green industrial revolution', closing the healthy life expectancy gap between the North and South through innovation, closing the education and skills gap, improving connectivity in towns and cities in the North and increasing private and public investment in research and development spending in the North.
Their report, backed by leaders including Liverpool mayor Joanne Anderson and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, says the North is "in a unique position to deliver Levelling Up and the Net Zero transition".
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And it adds: "Six out of the nine existing Metro Mayors are in the North, with more to follow; our business community is united behind this objective; and we have the human, natural and economic assets to make this happen.
"The Northern Powerhouse has always been about maximising the opportunities of scale through investment in connectivity, skills, research and development and through devolution.
"Many of the institutional pieces are now in place, including through recent developments such as Treasury North in Darlington, Channel 4 and the new National Infrastructure Bank in Leeds, and the newly established West Yorkshire Combined Authority.
"And new Net Zero investments are rapidly taking shape along the east coast from Blyth to the Humber, together with the decarbonisation clusters in the North West and Teesside, and the hydrogen battery plants at Nissan and British Volt."
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