North-East reaction to Budget 2018

The Chancellor, boosted by improved public finance forecasts, promised a "brighter future" after years of constraint imposed following the financial crash.

• Budget 2018 - everything you need to know

Here is how business leaders, MPs and other senior figures reacted to the budget.

Chancellor Philip Hammond

“My Budget sends a clear message to the people of the North East – your hard work is paying off and austerity is coming to an end.

“Thanks to our careful stewardship of the economy the public finances are in a much stronger position and national debt is falling.

“This means we have more money to invest in Britain’s future – boosting local services, supporting our high street, backing business and fuelling the economy.” 

Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen

“I’ve always said that local taxpayers should not have to pick up the entire cost of SSI’s failures.

“While the Government has already committed £137million this year to help with our plans, Special Economic Area status will allow us to go even further to prepare more land for private investment.

“That’s why I have today pledged that rent and business rates collected on this site will be used to remediate even more land. This will reduce our financial ask of taxpayers in the future, and will ensure the private sector rightly picks up some of the slack. It shouldn’t just be left to local people to foot the bill.

“I don’t want to see the money we generate here on Teesside disappearing back to London. If you invest here, and pay taxes here, the money should stay in Teesside.”

Simon Clarke, MP for Middlesbrough South and east Cleveland

“For the second year in a row, we’ve secured a Budget that will transform Teesside’s future.  Following last year’s huge investment of over £120 million in the Development Corporation, we now have a targeted package to prepare the specific sites for two new major metals businesses to move in – creating at least 1,500 jobs.

“Even more importantly, our campaign to bring a Free Zone to our area has made a big stride forward.  Our status as the first ever Special Economic Area marks the Tees Valley out as the most attractive place to do business in the country, with business rates being reinvested in the site.  This can be just the beginning.

“It’s impossible to overstate Ben Houchen’s role as our Mayor in leading the rejuvenation of the Tees Valley.  Together, we keep bringing Ministers to our area to see the prize that’s on offer and we keep putting in the hard yards to persuade them to give us the tools to change our area for the better.”

Anna Turley, Redcar MP

“After eight years of destructive austerity that has decimated our public services, taken thousands of pounds of vital support from our most vulnerable, and seen food banks and insecure work flourish, the government are showing no shame by trying to claim austerity is over.

“The Chancellor fell well short of ending austerity today, and his token pledges on social care, counter terrorism and mental health put a sticking plaster on the crisis in our public services. He also did nothing to prepare Britain for the disastrous no deal Brexit the Prime Minister is steering us towards.

“The police were promised another review, with nothing to put more officers back on our streets to tackle rising crime. The ‘little extras’ for schools do nothing to stop the huge budget shortfalls for teaching staff and pay. It’s a disgrace the chancellor has put more money in to potholes than schools. The extra money for adult social care is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions local authorities need to properly care for our most vulnerable – councils that are still being hit with £1.3 billion of cuts.

“In Redcar & Cleveland average weekly wages have fallen from being some of the best in the region to some of the worst since the closure of the steelworks. Youth unemployment is two and half times the national average. Our further education colleges have had their funding squeezed at a time when we need to invest in skills. Our council has had £90 million cut from its budget, affecting everything from street cleaning to social care. Hundreds of families are having to visit the food bank and that is before full rollout of Universal Credit starts. It is a shameful record under the Tory government and our people deserve better.

“Our biggest priority on Teesside is decent, skilled, well paid jobs so our people have opportunities to reach their potential. The steelworks site and the wider development corporation is crucial to that and we are ready to deliver on the masterplan for 20,000 jobs. I welcome the new powers for the ‘special economic area’ announced in the red book, as I asked for in my recent letter to the Chancellor. However, £14 million is not even close to the £200m we need to transform the site to be ready for new industry. The Tees Valley Mayor’s rowing back on this figure over recent weeks was a telling sign his government were not so interested. It is progress but after three years it is not good enough. The fact we have to beg for the money, subject to a business case, is even more exasperating.

“On the greatest threat to family livelihoods on Teesside, a catastrophic Tory Hard Brexit, we heard even less. The government’s own analysis shows our region’s economy would take a 16% hit. This is only going to prolong the industrial decline that drove many people to vote Leave. From our car makers to our chemical workers, manufacturing in the North East needs a strong relationship with our biggest trading partner.  But the Tories have spent more time arguing amongst themselves them negotiating a deal with Europe. Today’s Budget fudge does nothing to prepare us for crashing out of Europe and families in our area will pay the price.”

Jenny Chapman, Darlington MP

“It is no secret that Britain’s high streets are facing unprecedented pressures, with vacant units blighting many town centres. Often it is our independents and SMEs that are hit hardest by changing shopping habits and an antiquated rating system.

“Any move to ease that pressure and revitalise our high streets should be welcomed. 

“However, I would offer a word of caution. It still remains to be seen how much of the 1/3 reduction announced by the Chancellor today will be funded by central government. Or whether, in practice, this is another raid on already strained local government funds.”

Mike Parker, director of Schools North-East​

"The Chancellor started his Budget off in jovial fashion declaring he was 'Phil the Fiscal' but his crass comments on funding the 'little things' in education is more akin to Phil the Flippant. His comments deny the depth of underfunding in schools, forcing them to write to parents to beg for support and seeing teachers made redundant, curriculum narrowing and slashing the vital enrichment in schools that support the most deprived.

“It is also striking that the chancellor is more committed to filling holes in the road than he is to filling the holes in education with the announcement of a £420 million ‘pothole’ fund.

"No Head will turn their nose up at this one-off handout but it's time Philip Hammond went back to school to see at first hand the funding crisis and its impact on all children, especially those the Prime Minister's social mobility drive is intended to benefit. A longer term, properly resourced plan is urgently needed to more adequately support schools in these austere times for education."

Cllr Carl Les, North Yorkshire County Council leader

“North Yorkshire looks forward to its share of these much-needed sums for fixing our local roads and transport infrastructure and especially for adult social care."

“These one-off payments do not address  the fact that for a county like North Yorkshire, the largest geographically, an increase in long-term funding for essential services is the only way to create sustainability.  We will also need to see the detail of how these additional monies can be spent.

“Government is a partnership between central and local government and I am pleased  the Government has listened to our concerns, voiced directly through our MPs and through our networks like the County Council Network.”

Northern Powerhouse Partnership Vice Chair Lord Jim O’Neill

“While extra funding for Northern Powerhouse Rail development plans is welcome, this Government needs to become much more committed to the Northern Powerhouse or stop talking about it.

“The scale of the ONS’ revisions were sufficiently large, there were plenty of areas that the Chancellor gave new support to. But for the Northern Powerhouse the critical investment we need in transport, education, skills, devolution and increasing productivity is not being delivered, despite the consistent and persuasive cases being made by our business and civic leaders.

“All Northern eyes will be on the Chancellor in the coming months to see if the Treasury sign off on Northern Powerhouse Rail, a scheme that will be transformational for economic growth and rebalancing the economy. Without it, the exciting potential for the Northern Powerhouse to boost the national economy’s growth trend won’t be realised.”