Northern Powerhouse: Lancashire

Lord Bishop of St Albans Excerpts

Wednesday 14th October 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

My noble friend makes an excellent point. This is a one-off opportunity for the areas of Lancashire to maximise their assets and to be self-sufficient in how they derive energy, so I could not agree more with my noble friend.

[The Lord Bishop of St Albans]

My Lords, as has been mentioned, the chairman of the 1922 Committee spoke in a Daily Telegraph article today about the need in any devolvement to ensure that safeguards are in place to protect what he called the “rural fringes”. What plans do Her Majesty’s Government have to do just that and to ensure that decision-making across that whole area is not based on predominantly urban-focused priorities?

[Baroness Williams of Trafford]

I thank the right reverend Prelate and totally concur with his views about rural as well as urban being served by devolution and the northern powerhouse. Of course, there is the Cornwall deal, which is almost predominantly rural. However, I would not like noble Lords to forget about Greater Manchester—I am looking at the noble Lord, Lord Goddard, who has significant rural areas where he comes from—and Rochdale and Oldham. There are significant rural areas in Greater Manchester and that deal has now been done to their satisfaction