2013 Budget: Give regions autonomy says GVA20th March 2013

Mark Rawstron, Regional Senior Director and head of Investment for GVA in Manchester said: "The big issue for us is giving regional city authorities autonomy in terms of budget from an increasingly out of touch Westminster. As the gap between London and the regions continues to widen, we urge central government to not only provide a greater level of support to address the imbalance, but to also to ensure the funding mechanisms and schemes via LEP's and EZ's are pushed through. This needs to be in the context of a budget that supports business and employment in its widest sense so that improved local activity generates local benefits from a more entrepreneurial approach."

This follows wider calls this week to allocate more money to regional cities, and follows Boris Johnson’s controversial plan to spend £900m on cycle routes in London. Prof John Ashcroft last week unveiled a Manchester budget urging greater allocation of centralised funds.

Last week GVA unveiled research on Alternative Funding at MIPIM. The research can be viewed at www.gva.co.uk/research.