North East Mayoral Combined Authority (Establishment and Functions) Order 2024

Baroness Quin Excerpts

Monday 18th March 2024 Grand Committee

I am keen to recognise and thank the local leaders and their councils for all they have done and continue to do to address local priorities and support businesses, industries and communities across the north-east. I beg to move.

[Baroness Quin (Lab)]

My Lords, I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate. I welcome this order, although it is very sad that it coincides with the death of Paul Rowsell, to whom tribute has rightly been paid across all sides of the Committee.

This is an important step for the north-east. I represented a north-eastern constituency in the other place for many years and was always conscious that, while each of us spoke up for our constituents, there was a need for an overall voice to articulate the needs of the north-east and be heard at a national level in all our political and economic institutions. In many ways, the fact that this gives a voice to such a large part of the north-east is almost as important as the various powers that the Minister rightly outlined.