Andy Burnham calls for North to get priorty for Labour's £28bn green investment plan

The North of England should be prioritised for Labour’s proposed £28bn annual investment in green projects to prevent a repeat of the community “fractures” caused by mass pit closures during the energy industry changes of the 1980s, the region’s mayors have said.
Labour shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has pledged the party will invest that amount in green industries from 2027 should it be elected to Government. An initial promise to make such an investment from 2024 made two years ago was watered down earlier this year to the later date, with Ms Reeves blaming the state of the economy under the Conservative party as the reason for the delay.

Research last year by the Resolution Foundation said that the UK's net zero drive is expected to affect around 1.3m workers in carbon-intensive ‘brown’ jobs but the thinktank said that rather than the mass job losses of the past it is expected that the economic transformation will “change existing jobs rather than to destroy them”.

But speaking at the Great Northern Conference in Bradford this morning, South Yorkshire mayor Oliver Coppard called for his region to be prioritised for spending and said there were “fears” locally about the push for net zero would mean in reality.

He said efforts to reach net zero in the coming decades represent a “huge opportunity” if done right but added the mistakes made during the decline of the coal-mining industry in the 1980s must not be allowed to reoccur.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham went further and said that spending should be assessed outside of normal Treasury ‘Green Book’ calculations on public sector investment decisions.

He said: “We should be saying to the Labour frontbench that when it comes to that £28bn that has been identified as going to be spent in the UK if there is a Labour government that there should be no Green Book on this one and you should be prioritising the North of England for that investment.

"That would then become a funding stream of significance for us year-after-year to create green energy infrastructure across the North of England from tidal power in the Liverpool City Region to offshore wind in the North Sea. That’s a massive opportunity.”
Read more: https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/great-northern-conference-2023-mayors-call-for-north-to-be-priority-for-labours-ps28bn-annual-green-investment-plan-4288352