Northern Powerhouse

rdf:langString Northern Powerhouse

rdf:langString The Northern Powerhouse is a proposal to boost economic growth in the North of England by the 2010–15 coalition government and 2015–2016 Conservative government in the United Kingdom, particularly in the "Core Cities" of Hull, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. The proposal is based on the benefits of agglomeration and aims to reposition the British economy away from London and the South East. The spatial footprint of the Northern Powerhouse is defined as the 11 Local enterprise partnership areas of the North of England. The proposal involves improvement to transport links, investment in science and innovation, and devolution of powers in City Deals. Former MP for Stockton South, James Wharton, was appointed as minister responsible for the proposal in May 2015. A 2018 investigation by The Guardian indicated he rarely left London to visit the northern areas, however. In October 2015 during General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping's visit to the UK, Prime Minister David Cameron announced that the Northern Powerhouse proposal has "Chinese backing". Under the government of Theresa May who became Prime Minister in July 2016, it was alleged that the focus on the North was to be downgraded into a nationwide agenda for boosting productivity outside the south-east. However, this was subsequently refuted by Theresa May who pledged to "help the great cities and towns of the North pool their strengths and take on the world". In September 2016 one of the main architects of the Northern Powerhouse project, Lord O'Neill, resigned from the Government and quit the Conservative benches in the upper house.