Budget promises 'no regions will be left behind'

BewdleyPA Media

It's the first Budget after Brexit and severe flooding in the West Midlands

By Patrick Burns
Political editor, Midlands

"What's in it for us?"

That's the question thousands of Midlanders are entitled to ask of today's Budget, especially those Labour voters who broke the habits of several lifetimes by switching to the Conservatives in areas of the Black Country and North Staffordshire where, until recently, any such thing would have seemed unthinkable.

Remember this Budget is not only the first to be presented on behalf of a new government by a very new chancellor. It's also the first after Brexit and the first after our own flooding emergency along the rivers Severn, Teme and Wye which has left local communities facing long and relentless battles to rebuild their lives and their livelihoods.

What's in it for them, too?

And on top of all this, the deepening health emergency caused by the spread of coronavirus guaranteed that Rishi Sunak's debut could hardly have come at a less promising moment.

For once, Boris Johnson was the warm-up man - Prime Minister's Questions coming immediately before the chancellor's statement.

He did his best to take everyone's minds off coronavirus for a moment. He told Stoke South's Conservative MP Jack Brereton that the Budget would turn his city into "the crucible in which the future prosperity of this country is to be forged".

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The 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham gets a share of the budget pot

While Dudley South's Conservative MP Mike Wood asked the PM if the Budget would help the West Midlands' Conservative "metro mayor" Andy Street's drive for "investment in skills and transport infrastructure to power the Midlands Engine".

Mr Johnson replied that the Budget would be "transformational to the infrastructure in this country and in Dudley in particular".

But first things first...

In the event, there was no getting away from the health emergency, however determined the chancellor may have been to avoid this being remembered as "The Coronavirus Budget". The NHS, he promised, would be given whatever it needed to cope with the emergency.

Next came flooding relief. The headline figures of £120m to repair the immediate damage, £200m for local authorities to improve flood defences and £5.2bn capital investment in improving resilience measures also include £23m for communities in the Severn Valley.

So at least there is something in this Budget for the people who met Mr Johnson during his visit to Worcestershire 10 days ago when they told him he must "get Bewdley done".

Some of the other stand-out numbers:

  • A share of £4.2bn being handed out to the seven areas with directly-elected mayors to improve rail and bus services.

  • A share of £700m for improved road junctions in Coventry, Walsall and at Birmingham Airport.

  • A promise of £20m for the Midlands rail hub.

  • At least £23m for trade and tourism to take full advantage of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.

  • And, last but not least, a significant slice of £400bn set aside for affordable housing by the chancellor for what he called "ambitious mayors like Andy Street to build on brownfield sites".

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Rishi Sunak presented his first budget on Wednesday

No less bravely, Mr Sunak made a pledge close to Mayor Street's heart: to eradicate rough sleeping during the lifetime of this Parliament.

More Elections?

While Mr Street may be celebrating all these name-checks here at Westminster, he'll not need reminding that, Covid-19 permitting, he faces a mayoral election in May, when he will face a Labour challenger who knows a thing or two about Budget Day himself.

Liam Byrne was a Cabinet Minister at Treasury in the last Labour government. Already he's blamed Mr Street's "dithering" over local rail franchises for the misery that's been visited on hapless local commuters.

Mr Byrne has followed this up by tweeting his "anger and disappointment" that the Budget funds just 20% of what's needed for East Birmingham extension to the Midlands Metro. Even this, he says, will have to be shared with Sprint Bus Phase One where he calculates there is a £73m funding gap.

A landmark Budget this may be, with a Conservative government promising to ramp up public spending. But the opposition insist they are only repairing some of the damage of their own making during the Tories' decade of austerity.

Yet again, we have a Budget wrapped up in complex number-crunching. But that won't stop the raw politics following close behind.