https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-budget-treasury-labour-conservatives-dominic-cummings-a9261081.htmlQuote
Boris Johnson’s government is looking at ripping up spending rules to divert cash to the north as the Conservatives seek to repay voters who deserted Labour at the ballot box.
Ahead of the spring Budget, Treasury officials are understood to be drawing up plans to rewrite how the government calculates value for money, in order to shift spending away from London and the home counties.
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Under the plans, investment decisions for transport, infrastructure and business would evaluate improving people’s wellbeing or narrowing the productivity gap with the south rather than overall national economic growth.
Dominic Cummings, the prime minister’s top aide, is said to believe current value-for-money rules favour London and the southeast of England as they focus on maximising economic return.
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Lord Jim O’Neill, a former Treasury minister who is now vice chair of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said [...]: “By definition, it adds to the attraction of projects in heavily populated, economically vibrant areas – usually London – and doesn’t allow for potential major productivity-enhancing projects elsewhere, including many in the north [...]
The prime minister is also considering shifting civil servants outside of London and creating government bodies in the north, including an advanced science agency to boost research, according to the Financial Times.
Sounds very sensible and promising to me. Considering the impact on wellbeing and productivity disparity between regions when making goverment investment decisions, that's a model every country should adopt.
Let's see what comes of this, but perhaps the Labour->Tory voters in Britain's rust belt made the right decision when they broke their long-standing allegiance with Labour and went with Johnson instead.