Localis response to Budget 2020
Localis chief executive, Jonathan Werran, said: “This would be a most remarkable Budget even without the pressing need to address the immediate contingencies the coronavirus situation is raising.
“Today’s announcement succeeds in putting unprecedentedly increased levels of capital funding flesh to fully dress the rhetorical bones of the ‘levelling-up’ agenda.
“In this sense the chancellor has unveiled a “Bob the Builder” Budget – if the country needs it we will build it and get it done.
“From digital connectivity to mobility and transport upgrades, from housing growth and infrastructure development to pothole fixing to floods defences, the money is clearly there to match the ambition articulated in last December’s election to rebalance the national economy and extend opportunity across all four corners of the land.
“What is at stake here is the devolution of powers that will necessarily follow the funding, how it is distributed and at what scale. Will the new inclination of regional political economies encourage genuine local empowerment and self-determination to help shape communities and local economies in a way that accords with their sense of place and identity?
“For this we must await the final contents of the English Devolution White Paper and 2020’s other showstopping fiscal events – the July Spending Review and Autumn Budget.”