Burnham’s plan to let regions bid for cash is not a cruel ‘Hunger Games’ style contest, says Rayner
Angela Rayner has defended Andy Burnham’s plan to increase the spending power of local mayors and said they won’t be forced to compete for it like the dystopian movie. The Hunger Games film.
Ms Rayner, the housing minister, said the prime minister’s aim to give regions more powers did not mean they should fight each other and come out of the “begging bowl” to ask the government for money.
Ms Rayner compared how the devolution plans would work to a theoretical scenario in which her friend, former Labor MP and current West Yorkshire Mayor Tracey Brabin, is seeking government support for a new tram scheme.
Ms Rayner said: ‘He [Ms Brabin] ‘This is our collective effort in my region, I will invest the money we transferred,’ he says.
“It’s like, ‘I think I need a tram, can you please give it to me?’ It’s not like a begging bowl. – a kind of Hunger Games in which we pit one part of the country against another.
in the 2012 movie The Hunger GamesChild contestants representing impoverished areas are forced to fight to the death to gain support from the diabolically rich central authority ‘The Capitol’.
Ms Rayner said the government instead had a duty to support regional leaders seeking financial support for transport and other major projects.
His comments came shortly before Mr Burnham attended today’s first meeting of ‘No 10 North’ in Manchester, designed to demonstrate its determination to devolve more power from Whitehall to the regions.
The outpost is the creation of one of Mr Burnham’s flagship proposals and will serve as a “nerve centre” where priorities including re-industrialisation and regeneration will be delivered.
Mr Burnham described his first day of work at the new No 10 North as “the best day of my life”.
“I can’t tell you what a proud moment this is. I think this might be the best day of my life. I’m not kidding either. I know you think I am, but I’m not,” he said.
“Things are truly coming together for me here and to be with you all in the heart of Manchester this Friday morning, at the end of a pretty big week, means everything to me because it’s almost exactly 35 years since I left this city as a young graduate who couldn’t find a job in the city.
“It was in a pretty bad place at the time, honestly there wasn’t much going on as the 80s turned into the 90s.
Mr Burnham has long been an advocate of devolution and has repeatedly called for it to go further during his time as mayor of Greater Manchester.
Speaking outside of Number 10 as he became prime minister, he criticized political power in Britain becoming “centralised”, and added that he plans to “take power out of here, and carry it into every postcode in the land”.
This, he said, would require bringing basic needs “under stronger public control”, which he has argued in the past includes sectors such as water, transport and housing.
