New £200m science institute for the north
George Osborne with Professor Sir Paul Nurse (right) at a topping out ceremony at the Francis Crick Institute
Sean Dempsey/PA
A multimillion-pound science institute in Manchester will be announced by George Osborne tomorrow as the next step in his plans for a “northern powerhouse” to rival London’s thriving economy.
It can be revealed that the research and innovation centre will mirror the Crick Institute, due to open in London next year. It will cost more than £200 million, but the chancellor has been negotiating for months with private investors to secure extra funding.
The centre, which will focus on materials research, will have satellite hubs in cities including Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool, in an attempt to attract world-class scientists and technicians to the north. It may also have links to Cambridge and Imperial College London to enable their researchers to contribute to work in Manchester.
Sources in Whitehall said that Vince Cable, the business secretary, had worked on the proposals for months. “Vince has long pushed for improvements in science capital spending in the north for long-term growth and it is good news that Mr Osborne has recognised and rewarded this with extra cash,” one said.
The chancellor’s autumn statement, which will confirm big spending cuts for the next Parliament, will set out the details of 1,400 flood defence projects to provide better protection for 300,000 homes, although funding for the six-year scheme was announced last year.
Nick Clegg was forced to deny that the projects included in the statement were being chosen to help the coalition in the general election. Mr Osborne will confirm big road and rail programmes for the north and is likely to reveal that more powers may be devolved to cities such as Sheffield and Leeds. A new Transport for the North authority, to oversee buses, rail and metros, is expected to be confirmed.
Last month the chancellor gave approval for a high-speed rail link — HS3 — across the Pennines, ultimately linking Hull to Liverpool, via Leeds and Manchester. He later announced new powers, money and a directly elected mayor for Manchester as part of the government’s response to the Scottish referendum. After new tax-raising powers in Scotland were announced last week, local government chiefs have demanded devolved rights over council tax, business rates and welfare spending.
Some local government figures expect that Mr Osborne may also signal new powers for the West Midlands, including Coventry and Birmingham.
Labour council leaders have openly praised the chancellor for tackling concerns that they had have held for decades over a lack of infrastructure investment and Whitehall centralisation.
Even John Cruddas, the party’s head of policy, said last week that Mr Osborne had “been agile enough” to make a land grab of Labour’s agenda to solve the English democracy question through devolution to cities.
The Manchester research institute will have a “commercial arm” to ensure that innovations in technology and manufacturing are sold to businesses in Britain. Jim O’Neill, chairman of the City Growth Commission, which has campaigned for more power in the north, said that too often technology inventions in laboratories in English universities were sold abroad before the potential was recognised in Britain.
Mr O’Neill, who has been helping the chancellor to broker a deal with the northern local authorities to give them extra powers, said that Mr Osborne’s announcement about HS3 and faster rail links would be vital to ensure that scientists would be attracted to the north.
Charlotte Alldritt, secretary to the commission, said that the research funding “will help to make the northern powerhouse a global economic force to be reckoned with”.
Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said yesterday that Labour would be “tough on the deficit and tough on the causes of the deficit”, if it won power, but he acknowledged differences with the Tories by promising to get the deficit down in a “fairer way”.
Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Treasury select committee, said that detailed plans to give the Office for Budget Responsibility, the independent watchdog, the power to scrutinise election manifestos should be drawn up in the next Parliament.
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