Growth Deals: North of Tyne and Borderlands

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 17th April 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, I had not given particular thought to that question until the noble Viscount addressed it to me. Of course, there are two terribly good universities in Newcastle, as we know, but I am pleased to hear about the consideration being given to a university in Northumberland.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, are the Government not making a mess of this? Some areas have mayors; others do not. Some have powers that others do not. Should we not bring them all together so that there is some common sense in this issue?

[Lord Bourne of Aberystwyth]

My Lords, the noble Lord has gone in this direction before. It is clear that some metropolitan areas are well suited to mayors, as we have seen from Birmingham, Manchester and others developing metro mayors. Other areas do not lend themselves to that, so we would not expect one size to fit all.