Lancs will get powers and funding - plus a one-off £20m bonus to boost innovation
Deputy prime minister Angela Rayner this morning hailed Lancashire's "untapped potential" as she announced the Government will press ahead with the county's oven-ready devo deal. The agreement - inked last year by the leaders of Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council - has no provision for an elected mayor for the county.
But the Government has now said that it will sign off on the deal currently on the table - under which Lancashire will be handed power over policy areas including adult education and regeneration, along with a one-off £20m fund to help boost "innovation-led growth". It marks the end of more than eight years of torturous – and often tortuous – negotiations about how devolution could be brought to the county. Lancashire's 15 council leaders have more often than not failed to agree amongst themselves on the shape of any deal – and that is before the ever-shifting devolution demands of successive governments, whether in relation to a mayor or the streamlining of the local authority map, have been factored in.
Lancashire County Council leader Phillippa Williamson described the moment as a "very significant step forward" in Lancs' devolution journey.
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