Greater Manchester will become the first place in the country to retain 100% business rates, from next year.
The announcement made during this afternoon’s budget will see Greater Manchester become a pilot scheme for a possible national policy in future years.
Prospective Greater Manchester mayoral candidate Ivan Lewis MP has responded to the Chancellor’s move.
Ivan, the Labour MP for Bury South, welcomed the move to hand greater financial autonomy to the region but warned that devolution must be used to push down the region’s inequalities.
“I welcome today’s decision to pilot 100% business rate retention in Greater Manchester. This will give us greater flexibility and control over resources which rightly belong to us not the Treasury. However, it is absolutely vital that this radical change benefits the whole of Greater Manchester and serves to reduce inequality, not increase it. There are huge disparities in the amount of revenue our ten councils earn from business rates. Therefore, proper mechanisms must be created to ensure a fair distribution of income and overall benefit.”
The region will take on a greater role in the delivery of criminal justice services.
Additional responsibilities include greater involvement in the commissioning of offender management services, greater influence over education provision in prisons, and joint work with Government to improve services for youth offenders.
The Chancellor also announced that Libor funds to be spent on children’s hospital services, specifically in Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Southampton.
The £1b fund comes from fines imposed on banks and other financial institutions by the financial regulator.
