WITH a General Election just weeks away, George Osborne took care in his Budget speech not to neglect individual regions of the country - highlighting areas benefiting from what he called a "truly national recovery".

At centre stage was further fuel for the Chancellor's much-vaunted ambition to create a "Northern Powerhouse" - such as devolving more decisions to a group of West Yorkshire councils in the latest city deal.

But there was also specific help for the sort of marginal seats in London that could hold the key to this not being his final set-piece as the occupant of Number 11 Downing Street.

Over the past year, the north of England - an area where the Tories need to significantly boost their appeal to be sure of holding on to power - had grown faster than the south, Mr Osborne told the Commons.

Employment was growing fastest in the North West and, he added with a glance at Ed Miliband and Ed Balls who both represent seats in the county, more jobs had been created in "the great county of Yorkshire" than by the whole of France.

Promising to "support and reward" cities seeking to push their own growth, he said provisional agreement had been reached with Greater Manchester and Cheshire East authorities to control all additional business rate revenues.

Other parts of the country could benefit from such deals, he suggested.

However, the Local Government Association said "the future of local services" depended on more rapid devolution of powers.

Ed Cox, director of IPPR North, said: "Although recent statistics on economic growth in some parts of the North have been positive, these are from a low base and the picture over the last Parliament shows significant divergence between north and south.

"The West Yorkshire devolution deal is another incremental step in favour of city devolution, but it falls a long way short of the Greater Manchester deal and appears to have faltered on the Treasury's unswerving commitment to directly-elected mayors.

"In truth, devolution in England is progressing far more slowly than in Scotland and all political parties need to use their manifestos to set out a clear blueprint for devolution beyond one or two big cities.

"Allowing Manchester and Cambridge to retain 100% of the growth in business rates is another small step towards giving English cities much needed revenue raising powers, but with the announcement of a wholescale review of business rates, more radical options must be considered which allow l