Healey’s first budget to include big devolution package to boost growth

Burnham said Healey’s budget was about ‘shifting power out of Westminster and into the hands of the people who know their communities best’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian View image in fullscreen Burnham said Healey’s budget was about ‘shifting power out of Westminster and into the hands of the people who know their communities best’. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian Healey’s first budget to include big devolution package to boost growth Chancellor will build on Burnham’s promise that local leaders in England will no longer have to ‘come cap in hand to Westminster’ Andy Burnham has promised that local leaders in England will no longer have to come “cap in hand to Westminster” ahead of a fresh drive to devolve spending power in next week’s budget. In his statement on Wednesday, the chancellor, John Healey, will include plans for a new £1.5bn borrowing facility, to be drawn up in collaboration with mayors over the next two years. Regional mayors have long complained that they are constrained – in contrast to local authorities in the US and some European countries, which commonly issue their own bonds. The borrowing plan will form part of a big devolution package aimed at boosting regional economic growth. This will also include the allocation of an initial £285m “good growth” funding next year, to be spent on local leaders’ priorities – which could include housing, transport links or high street regeneration. Can curry nights and canny advisers help Healey deliver a budget for everyday people? Amid fears in the Treasury about whether some local authorities have the capacity to administer increasingly large budgets, Healey will also announce £150m of support to help them scale up and build expertise. Hailing the plans, Burnham said they would mean local leaders would no longer need to come to the Treasury for approval for each individual project. “I’m calling time on local leaders going cap in hand to Westminster. That is no way to run a country. When I became prime minister, I said that if a decision can be made closer to home, it should be. “Today we’re putting that into practice, shifting power out of Westminster and into the hands of the people who know their communities best.” The £285m in “good growth” funding is intended to tide local authorities over until a new system comes into force in 2028 whereby some income tax revenue will be handed directly to their areas to give them longer-term security – an idea first mooted by Healey’s predecessor, Rachel Reeves, earlier this year.