Chancellor hesitant on Northern Powerhouse but commits to £1.8bn growth deals

THE new Chancellor Philip Hammond seemed hesitant to throw his weight behind what was the brainchild of his predecessor George Osborne during the Autumn Statement.

However, Hammond insisted that "devolution is at the heart of this government's approach" to local growth.

He has allocated £1.8bn from the Local Growth Fund to the English regions in a third round of Growth Deals.

Some £556m of this will go to the North of England, £392m to LEPs in the Midlands, £151m to the East of England, £492m to London ... You can carry on reading TheBusinessDesk.com for free, but you have reached the maximum number of pages an unregistered user can view. To register for an account, click here or login below...