Will Jeremy Corbyn be good for the north of England?
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Version 0 of 1. Early in August, Jeremy Corbyn published ideas to address some of the economic and social challenges faced in the north of England. Northern Future — a hand-me-down title borrowed from IPPR North, my thinktank, and the erstwhile deputy prime minister — garnered relatively little attention when it was released. Some newspapers picked up on its call for a formal investigation into the events at Orgreave coking plant in 1984 but now, on his elevation to the Labour Party leader, it warrants further scrutiny. The fact that Corbyn has been the only Labour Party figure to directly address “the north” for over a decade was a welcome departure in itself. It still baffles many commentators that Labour’s riposte to Osborne’s “northern powerhouse” agenda has been almost negligible. Before the general election Labour was reduced to sneering about the Conservatives’ northern credentials and since it has taken up sniping about local government cuts and the “pause” to Trans-Pennine rail electrification. But with Labour city leaders in the north standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the chancellor on the importance of devolution and transport investment, the MPs’ griping has had little traction on mainstream debate and the northern powerhouse clearly had cut-through in a general election where Labour lost – and failed to win – significant numbers of northern seats. It is also refreshing that Corbyn’s Northern Future document is explicitly described as no more than the start of a dialogue with northern businesses, public authorities and crucially the general public. There is a real sense that this is an agenda that will need to be shaped and honed in the months ahead. This is just as well. For too many of the ideas it contains are unformed and, in some cases, misguided. At the heart of Corbyn’s northern programme is a commitment to “rebuild a resilient industrial base”. Few would completely disagree with this intention and the notion that “we should look at building sustainable and green industries that tackle climate change”. But there is precious little detail as to how and more than a nod back to old fashioned industrial policies rather than the smart regional policies of the future. Two ideas are prominent though: first a National Investment Bank with a big focus on investing in infrastructure and housing. This would be backed up by “a fairer funding formula to ensure London does not utterly dominate government infrastructure”. Again, rebalancing infrastructure spending has been a crucial theme of IPPR North’s agenda in recent years, but whether a National Investment Bank is the best means to achieve this – compared for example with devolving a much bigger proportion of the national infrastructure budget – is open to question. Oblique references to regional banking in the document might be closer to what is needed. Second, Corbyn rightly places heavy emphasis on transforming northern education and skills with a particular enthusiasm for tackling the apparent ‘brain-drain’. Offering graduates financial incentives to stay at northern universities though looks a real hostage to fortune and a ‘National Education Service’ seems to fly in the face of his intention to decentralise not to mention the direction of travel elsewhere in Europe where education and skills systems are increasingly being tailored to local and regional needs. There are other ideas that will chime with long-standing campaigners for more progressive policies for the north: the removal of restrictions on councils to borrow to build council homes; giving transport authorities similar powers to Transport for London; the re-regulation of bus services; and the decentralisation of government departments, for example. But these will ultimately need to form part of a much broader narrative and a more coherent action plan. And the immediate risk is that a hardened line on metro mayors – linked to the government’s current initiative for city and county devolution – will set Labour’s devolution agenda backwards rather than propelling it towards a more progressive position. Opposition to the current Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill will send out all the wrong messages to those who voted for a new way of doing politics, however malign some elements of the government’s agenda might be. Looking at the bigger picture though, we would do well not to get too hung up on policy detail, for as we have seen in Scotland, the precise details of Corbyn’s plans for the north are perhaps less significant than his broader democratic appeal to those who feel cut off from the Westminster system. We are some way from the kind of democratic moment experienced in Scotland and the Corbyn project may well get derailed but his calls for a constitutional convention “across the North to find the best way of governing” will no doubt galvanise civil society groups who have already been plotting along these lines. Ed Cox is director of IPPR North@edcox_ippr |