Latest news with #AndyBurnham
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
'Billions of pounds' to be spent on new Manchester to Liverpool railway line
Plans to build a new railway line between Manchester and Liverpool look set to go ahead. The government has committed to spending 'billions of pounds' on the project, according to reports. It comes after Andy Burnham urged the government to make a commitment towards the new train line when it announces its long-term spending plans next week. The Manchester Evening News and Liverpool ECHO joined forces to back the project when the mayor pitched the plans last month. READ MORE: Child arrested as investigation launched after 50 people rescued from major fire READ MORE: Moment man realised the game was up after being confronted on his doorstep According to the Financial Times, Rachel Reeves has now signed off plans to spend 'billions of pounds' on the major transport project. The newspaper reports that the plans will be funded through a £113bn investment in transport projects agreed by the Chancellor. Under the plans, express train would run every 10 minutes between Manchester Piccadilly and Liverpool Lime Street with services calling at Warrington as well as the airports in each city. Journey times would also be slashed to just over half an hour each way. The proposal also include building an underground station at Piccadilly and a new transport interchange at Manchester Airport. Presenting the plans to cabinet ministers and senior civil servants last month, Mr Burnham said he wants the government commit to the new railway line as part of its 10-year Infrastructure Strategy which the M.E.N. understands is expected to be published next week. Mr Burnham, and his Liverpool City Region counterpart Steve Rotheram, said the plans could help add £90bn to the economy. At the time, Mr Burnham said: "What we would ask the government to consider is not to give everything we need right now. "It's simply to say that in the 2030s - hopefully starting in the early part of the 2030s - they will commit in the infrastructure strategy to a window when this railway will be built." Ms Reeves will deliver her Spending Review, setting out the government's multi-year budget, in Parliament next Wednesday (June 11). The M.E.N. understands the 10-year Infrastructure Strategy, which will include transport plans will then be published the following day.
The Independent
9 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
First Sadiq, now Andy… will no one rid Keir Starmer of his turbulent mayors?
Who is the most popular politician among Labour members? It is not Keir Starmer: more party members have an unfavourable view of him than a favourable one, according to the latest poll. It is not Angela Rayner, although she is favourably regarded by 73 per cent of party members. Nor is it Ed Miliband, the most popular member of the cabinet – even though a remarkable 81 per cent of members have a favourable view of him. A little-noticed finding of the Survation poll of members for Labour List in March was that 91 per cent of them have a favourable view of Andy Burnham. Only 7 per cent have an unfavourable view of him. One person who did notice the poll, and its North Korean level of support for the mayor of Greater Manchester, was Burnham himself. It provided the electoral kerosene to power his speech at the weekend to Compass, the 'soft-left' pressure group. It was a speech that sought to put Burnham at the head of the growing unhappiness in the Labour Party at the leadership of Starmer and Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, without mentioning either of them by name. 'Inside Labour there might not be a vacancy but there is always a contest,' as George Eaton of the New Statesman commented. But how credible is what Burnham calls his alternative 'popular left programme'? Some of it is a call for a change of tone. 'I believe you do have to take on the right,' he said. 'But what's the best way to do that? Definitely not by aping their rhetoric.' This just goes to show the danger for Starmer of being so explicit about seeing Nigel Farage as his main opponent: the prime minister's 'island of strangers' speech wasn't aping Reform's rhetoric, but a lot of Labour members think it was. As for policy, Burnham wants to switch to proportional representation and abolish the party whip system, 'which makes you vote for things you don't fully agree with'. This is what I call putting the 'soft' in the soft left, and is designed to ensure that no government could ever do anything. But if a Burnham-led government could do something, what would it be? He wants to reverse welfare cuts and launch the 'biggest social housing building programme the country has ever seen', but there is an ambiguity at the heart of his alternative fiscal policy. Sometimes he talks about having 'more flexibility' in Reeves's fiscal rules; on Saturday he talked about higher taxes on wealth, which might be a way of spending more while sticking to the rules. In this, he perfectly reflects the confusion of Labour members and MPs who are unhappy with the leadership. They complain about Reeves's 'self-imposed straitjacket', but if pressed admit that they realise that higher borrowing might spook the markets. They don't want more cuts, and if forced to make a choice will go for higher taxes on the better-off – coincidentally the direction proposed in Rayner's March memo to Reeves that was leaked last month, along with some specific suggestions. It was notable that Starmer appeared to reject this option on Monday, telling the BBC: 'I don't think you can tax your way to growth. We have high tax as it is.' That seems to set up the Budget in the autumn as the moment that the irresistible force of deteriorating public finances meets the immovable object of the fiscal rules – bearing in mind that the rules merely codify 'what the financial markets will bear'. If the clash of the irresistible and the immovable results in an explosion destabilising the prime minister, we know that Burnham stands ready – although he would have to find a parliamentary seat first. The same applies to Sadiq Khan, the three-term mayor of London, who has recently struck poses – declaring 'Brexit was a mistake' and proposing the decriminalisation of cannabis – that would appeal to Labour members. It is notable that the other leading candidate, Angela Rayner, also has a democratic mandate of her own, being directly elected as deputy leader by party members. None of them has much of a distinctive policy on the central questions of tax and spending. But the discontent among Labour MPs and members is intensifying, and the temptation of the vague and alluring 'alternative' offered by the party's lost leader exiled in the north is growing.
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
English mayors push for visitor levy to boost income from tourism
A coalition of mayors from across England are urging the government to allow local authorities to bring in a Barcelona-style visitor levy to generate income from tourism. The group, led by the Liverpool city region mayor, Steve Rotheram, argues that a visitor levy would unlock vital funding for tourism and cultural infrastructure, empower regional growth and reduce dependence on central government funding. The letter to the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, and the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has been co-signed by the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham; the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan; the north-east mayor, Kim McGuinness; Richard Parker, the mayor of the West Midlands; and the West Yorkshire mayor, Tracy Brabin. They say provisions could be made in the forthcoming English devolution bill, or in a specific finance bill, to give local authorities the freedom to design and introduce a locally administered visitor levy. It would mean cities they represent, including Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham and London, could introduce charges to reap direct benefits from tourism. Many European cities have similar levies in place, including Venice, Lisbon and Amsterdam, as do Spain's Balearic Islands. In the Liverpool city region, which hosts more than 60 million visitors annually, a visitor levy could raise nearly £11m a year, the mayors said. The city hosted Eurovision in 2023, which generated £54m in direct economic impact. If a £1- to £5-a-night levy were introduced in Greater Manchester, it could raise between £8m and £40m a year, which could go towards infrastructure projects such as the regeneration of Old Trafford or airport development, the mayors said. The mayors said funds raised through a visitor levy would be ringfenced for local reinvestment, and said the government needed to act urgently, as devolved governments in Scotland and Wales are moving ahead with their own tourism levies, leaving English regions at risk of falling behind. 'The Liverpool city region is a global icon of creativity, culture and character – attracting more than 60 million visitors every year and supporting a £6.25bn visitor economy,' Rotheram said. 'That's something to be incredibly proud of – but it also comes with pressures on our infrastructure and services. 'A small charge on overnight stays – the kind most of us wouldn't think twice about when travelling abroad – would give us the power to reinvest directly into the things that make our area so special.' Burnham added: 'At a time when national resources are under real pressure, a modest visitor levy – something we all pay in other parts of Europe – offers a fair and sustainable way to support our local services.' McGuinness said: 'A local tourism tax is so mainstream across the rest of the world you barely notice it, so it should not be a big step here in the UK.' Last year, a report from the landscape charity Friends of the Lake District made a similar call. The organisation's chief executive, Mike Hill, said: 'In most of the places around the world that we've looked at that have brought in some sort of tourism levy, tourism numbers have actually increased, because the place gets better.'
Channel 4
3 days ago
- Politics
- Channel 4
Westminster often ‘doesn't connect' with voters, says Andy Burnham
The Labour Party came to power last July promising a 'decade of national renewal'. But in the seven months since their landslide election victory, there's been mixed progress on that pledge. There have been advances on workers' rights, and the setting up of GB Energy – but big questions over the government's climate and welfare plans. Poll numbers have declined dramatically, and the government is now pondering major u-turns on benefits to try and combat the rise of Reform UK. So what does that decade of renewal look like, and how do they get voters back on side? We spoke to Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor for Greater Manchester, who's been taking part in a conference today in London, and asked first off why Reform is doing so well?
The Guardian
4 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Labour spending review must be ‘economic reset', Louise Haigh to say
Next month's spending review must be an 'economic reset' based on a bold wealth tax and higher public investment, the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh is to argue, as Keir Starmer faces renewed pressure from within Labour to change course. Haigh's comments come as Andy Burnham called for Labour to 're-establish itself unequivocally once again as the party of working-class ambition' with ambitious offerings on housing and education. Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, will say ministers should allow mayors to build on public land, and set a target for the point at which more new social homes are being built than existing ones are sold off. Haigh and Burnham will make their interventions in speeches at an event taking place on Saturday organised by the Labour-allied thinktank Compass. Haigh, who quit the cabinet in November after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone, will reiterate her call for a wealth tax after the local election results from 1 May, which she called 'a warning' from voters that they wanted bolder policies. She will say: 'The spending review must be a moment for an economic reset. I welcome the prime minister's review of winter fuel changes but we must go further, ripping up our self-imposed tax rules and taxing the country's vast wealth.' Haigh will say the current tax system 'punishes earned income but barely touches the sides of the real driver of inequality – wealth'. It is time to 'finally move beyond a broken model where working people's wages are topped up by tax credits and benefits, leaving bad employers and landlords to profit', she will say. 'It's about moving from a system of handouts for the rich to real investment for everyone else. We need real reform: a proper wealth tax that rewards work, closes loopholes and finally gives us the means to invest in the NHS, schools and our communities.' According to extracts of his speech released in advance, Burnham will say the spending review 'will define the rest of this parliament', and he will call for Labour to focus on ways it can positively combat the electoral threat from Reform UK. Burnham will say: 'Rather than standing for the status quo, the time has come for the party to re-establish itself unequivocally once again as the party of working-class ambition, shedding the perception in the Midlands and the north of a London-centric, university-oriented party.' This would require a particular focus on housing and education, to particularly address 'the single biggest cause of Britain's modern malaise: a housing crisis caused not by immigration but by ideology'. The Thatcher-era right-to-buy policy, without investment in new social homes, 'shattered the foundations on which generations of working-class British families built better lives', Burnham will say. 'Labour's clarion call should be to free Britain from the grip of the housing crisis. In this spending review, working with mayors in the big city regions, it should set the date by which each will reach the crucial tipping point of building more social homes than they are losing. 'This is the moment when, instead of tightening its grip, the housing crisis starts to ease. To do that, the spending review should unlock public land for mayors to use to build a new generation of council homes at pace – akin to the drive of the postwar Labour government.' Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary, has already announced plans to restrict right to buy and has pushed for more investment in social homes, but as yet this has done little to ease the housing crisis. Other speakers at the Compass-run event will include Mark Drakeford, the former first minister of Wales, the Labour MPs Rachael Maskell and Simon Opher, and the junior energy minister, Miatta Fahnbulleh.
