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Abandoning rail plans 'would be a betrayal of the North', PM warned  Northern leaders have reacted with fury to the suggestion that plans for Northern Powerhouse Rail could be scaled back. Pic by Shutterstock
With Prime Minister Rishi Sunak trying to find £50 billion through savings and tax hikes, fears are growing that the axe will fall on major infrastructure projects like the flagship Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) scheme. Business Secretary Grant Shapps hinted on Friday that a plan for a high speed NPR between Liverpool and Hull would be scaled back from a grander vision for the project committed to by former Prime Minister Liz Truss. The former Transport Secretary argued that "there wasn't really much point in going and blasting new tunnels through the Pennines" to build the full new high speed line between Leeds and Manchester promised by Boris Johnson. And the signs that the vision for NPR will now be scaled back to the cut-price version revealed in last year's Integrated Rail Plan have prompted fury from Northern business and political leaders. A raft of Yorkshire's biggest employers and business organisations have this weekend written to the Prime Minister and other key Government departments calling for Northern Powerhouse Rail and HS2 to be delivered in full. In an unprecedented collective display of determination, leadership at West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, the CBI in Yorkshire and the Humber and the Institute of Directors, along with major employers such as Yorkshire Building Society, Provident Financial, Leeds Bradford Airport and Deloitte have signed the letter to Rishi Sunak.
They were joined by former Chancellor George Osborne, who told the Andrew Neil show on Channel 4 that abandoning Northern Powerhouse Rail "would be a betrayal of the North". See the full video here. He said: "There's absolutely no fiscal reason why it has to abandon Northern powerhouse rail and it's vital to the connections east-west across the North as well as north-south down the country and the Conservative party are defending a lot of seats in the North so it's political too. "It's madness to scrap it and I suspect like governments have talked about scrapping it in the past there'll be a U turn on this too."
Arts funding moves from London to North - but not everyone's happy  Blackpool Illuminations is set to get Arts Council England funding
But Friday was a red letter day for many cultural groups in the North, as Arts Council England announced a new national portfolio of funding for museums, libraries and other art organisations for 2023 to 2026. It includes new investment to 276 institutions that previously weren't part of the programme and means that for the first time the North is now level with London in the number of organisations in its national portfolio (NPO). For example, Blackpool Illuminations is now an NPO for the first time, with a £700,000 investment boost allowing bosses to develop October's Lightpool Festival. Council leader Lynn Williams said: "We have a vibrant arts scene in Blackpool with some wonderful independent organisations and the funding will enable us to collaborate with them to a much greater level." The Arts Council says its Levelling Up for Culture Places scheme means 78 designated towns and cities "from Stoke to Slough, Gloucester to Wigan", will share £43.5 million annually, for the next three years. We'll have a more detailed analysis of where the funding is going in tomorrow's newsletter. Meanwhile, the English National Opera has been removed from the portfolio entirely. Instead, the company will get £17 million over three years to develop a "new business model" with suggestions of a move from London to Manchester. And academy-award winner Sir Sam Mendes has criticised reductions to the funding for London's Donmar Warehouse Theatre, insisting it will "wreak long-lasting havoc" on the wider industry.
Double boost for Teesside as electric car battery firms move to region  A pair of battery materials start-ups have selected Teesside to locate key parts of the electric vehicle supply chain
The UK's aspirations to become a manufacturing powerhouse for electric vehicles (EVs) took a serious knock last week after the near-collapse of battery start-up Britishvolt, which hopes to build a battery gigafactory in Northumberland. But there was good news further south as a pair of battery materials start-ups selected Teesside to locate key parts of the electric vehicle supply chain, such as the processing of one of the key minerals for batteries. Read more in the Financial Times piece here. Green Lithium has unveiled Teesport in Middlesbrough as the site for their forthcoming lithium refinery, delivering more than 1,000 jobs in construction and 250 long-term high-skill jobs for local people once up and running. Business Secretary Grant Shapps is visiting the site today and described the move as "levelling up in action". Currently 89% of the world's lithium processing takes place in East Asia and there are no lithium refineries in Europe. Meanwhile the UK's largest planned EV battery recycling facility has selected the region to set up a factory. Global firm Altilium Metals would transform battery waste from more than 150,000 electric vehicles into 'Cathode Active Material' – a key component of new batteries. Its mega-recycling plant would create 100 to 200 high value jobs by 2025 and hundreds more during its construction - with a projected 18-month build to get the facility up and running.
Cost of living support package branded 'reckless use of money'  Councillor Max Woodvine and council leader Amanda Chadderton (Image: Oldham council)
With the weather turning cold and the cost-of-living crisis causing misery across the North, town halls in areas like Bolton, Scarborough, Burnley and the East Riding of Yorkshire have unveiled funds to support residents. But in Oldham, the Greater Manchester borough known for its toxic politics, Labour council chiefs have defended a £3 million cost of living support package for residents after a Tory councillor called it a 'reckless use of money', writes Local Democracy Reporter Charlotte Green. Oldham's cabinet agreed to invest millions in its response to the crisis, which has seen funding provided to Oldham Foodbank and the creation of 'warm banks' – spaces for residents to go to freely if they are struggling to afford to heat their homes – in the borough's libraries. But at a full council meeting, opposition councillors were critical of the support package. Brian Hobin, leader of the Failsworth Independent Group, said: "I disagree on how the funds are being used, and whether the leader's idea of what residents require is being met." And Tory Max Woodvine also took aim at the pamphlet detailing the cost of living response, describing it as a 'publicity stunt' and asked whether the investment was a 'reckless use of money'. Council leader Amanda Chadderton replied: "No it's absolutely not a waste of public money. This booklet is part of a communications campaign, we have to show to people that help is out there."
 Mavis and Thomas Lavin (Image: Gary Oakley/Manchester Evening News)
Rishi Sunak is yet to commit to raising benefits in line with inflation or confirm whether the pensions triple-lock - the promise to raise state pension payments every year by either 2.5%, average earnings or in line with inflation - will be honoured. And while millions of pensioners and claimants face an anxious wait to see whether payments are going to change, the Manchester Evening News' Paige Oldfield visited Bolton, where pensioners and people in receipt of Universal Credit told of their fears. Pensioners Mavis and Thomas Lavin have been married for almost fifty years and are now in ill health but falling temperatures and rising energy costs are taking their toll. "It's colder now and we're freezing," Mavis, 91, said. "We don't have the heating on in the morning anymore, we put it on for an hour in the evening. "They [the Government] are all for the rich – and they won't tax the oil companies. We're getting old, it's the other people we feel sorry for. I wouldn't like to be here in the future."
MP makes emotional plea for change in law on assisted dying  Sheffield Central MP Paul Blomfield will step down at the next General Election
"I don't think I've ever reached out to hold an MP's hand during an interview before," tweeted Sky News presenter Sophy Ridge yesterday after broadcasting an emotional appeal from Sheffield's Paul Blomfield. The Labour MP called for a change in the law on assisted dying as he described the death of his elderly father. The 69-year-old, who represents Sheffield Central, told how he received a phone call more than eight years ago informing him that his father, Harry, had taken his own life. His 87-year-old former RAF Pilot father had been diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer and Mr Blomfield said the current law which bans assisted dying made life "miserable" both for those who are suffering terminal illness but also their loved ones. Currently, under the Suicide Act 1961, anyone convicted of assisting a person to take their own life can be punished with up to 14 years in prison. Mr Blomfield, who will step down at the next election, said: "The law prevents people having choice at the end of their life and it drives people to take very desperate measures, like my father. Even discussing plans would make family members complicit and some people have been prosecuted for that. "I want to see a change in the law which gives people a choice which means people who have a terminal diagnosis of six months or less that they can choose the point at which they pass rather than live out a miserable death." 
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Northern Stories  The Princess of Wales meeting England Women's captain Emily Rudge (right of centre) during her visit to Wigan
- The Princess of Wales enjoyed a "really exciting" game as she joined fans in Wigan to watch England win their Rugby League World Cup quarter-final. Kate attended the crunch game against Papua New Guinea at the DW Stadium on Saturday, her first match since succeeding the Duke of Sussex as patron of the Rugby Football League. The princess was cheered by the crowd of 23,179 supporters as she walked on to the pitch to shake hands with players from both teams before the match kicked off.
- A plan to move asylum seekers from Kent to a hotel close to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's constituency home has been made despite concerns over the fate of British homeless families and those fleeing the war in Ukraine housed in the venue. Campaigners say seven Ukrainian and two British families have been told to leave the Allerton Court Hotel, in Northallerton, which is just a few miles from Mr Sunak's manor house home in a nearby village. They say they are being relocated to Stockton-on-Tees and parts of County Durham to make way for people being relocated from the controversial centre at Manston, in Kent – a move which has also meant half-a-dozen weddings being cancelled at the 44-room North Yorkshire venue.
- A symposium looking at what the North needs to deliver inclusive growth and rebalance through investment in skills for the future and realise its communities' full potential takes place in Liverpool on Friday. The Powering Up People and Place event hosted by Atkins at the Royal Liver Building features speakers including Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram and Alison McGovern, Shadow Minister for Employment. It focuses on new research asking Northern leaders what they believe are the key challenges and priorities for levelling up and rebalancing the North. Find out more here.
- Leeds planners have given the green light for a huge new conference centre to be built in the city, despite widespread opposition in neighbouring Harrogate. An events space is set to be built along the road from Leeds Arena, on the site of the old Yorkshire Bank Headquarters on Merrion Way, which are now set to be demolished to make way for the development. Harrogate Convention Centre claims the move will suck business away from the North Yorkshire town, a view backed by six hotels, who fear a similar impact on the Harrogate tourism industry.
- Major plans to build a "world class" children's heart unit at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary have won the backing of city leaders. Newcastle City Council has approved a vision that would see a state of the art, £40m centre built at the RVI – a critical development that will allow specialist children's heart surgery services to stay in the North East. The government announced a significant cash injection in 2019 to enable the specialist unit to move from the Freeman Hospital to the Newcastle city centre site, though local NHS trust bosses say they are still waiting for a final seal of approval on the business case for the new facility before construction can begin.
- A Bury councillor has avoided being thrown off the authority for failing to attend meetings while she was off on holiday. Yvonne Wright, an Independent who represents Tottington ward, has not attended a council meeting since May 27 this year after being on holiday on each occasion she was due to be present. She was away on holiday for meetings on July 20 and September 21. The Local Government Act 1972 says if a councillor fails over six consecutive months from the date of their last attendance to attend any meeting of the authority, they shall cease to be a member of the authority.
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