Northern Leaders Gather for the Convention of the North

Political and business leader came together last week in Manchester for the Convention of the North. The mayors of Greater Manchester, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Liverpool City Region and North of Tyne converged to discuss levelling up and how to address regional inequalities. Delegates had to opportunity to hear speeches from Secretary of State at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), Michael Gove; and his opposite number, Shadow DLUHC Secretary of State, Lisa Nandy.

Michael Gove’s speech centred on closing the gap on the social and economic disparities between regions. Much of this focused on rebalancing through reforms to housing. This included his plan to devolve power on housing funding to mayoral authorities, Gove said: “We want to devolve even more housing funding, including exploring giving more control of the Affordable Homes Programme to West Midlands and Greater Manchester. At the moment London is the only mayoral authority controlling this budget and if we want more of the homes we need in the places where they are needed, regenerating those brownfield sites and driving growth, this devolution is vital and necessary.”

Michael Gove also announced funding for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands to improve the quality of social housing, saying “So today we are going further in our drive to make every home a decent home and allocating £30 million for Greater Manchester and the West Midlands to start making improvements in the quality of social housing.”

Commenting, NHC Chief Executive Tracy Harrison, who attended the event, said

“The Convention of the North is always an inspiring event, and it was great to hear the Secretary of State put housing at the heart of his speech last week. It is clear that the Secretary of State remains highly committed to the levelling-up mission on housing quality, and the NHC will continue to work with Government to influence the evolution of the Decent Homes Standard, and its extension to the private rented sector.”