THE NEvolution campaign launched today by the region’s newspapers - with the backing of business and community leaders across the North-East - calls for the Government to act on the Heseltine Report - No Stone Unturned.

In October last year, the Tory peer unveiled in the report radical plans to hand huge spending pots - and control over skills budgets, infrastructure funds and job creation schemes – to the region.

Lord Heseltine urged David Cameron to unleash towns and cities to drive their own destinies and deliver economic growth.

Central to the vision was a call for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to be handed budgets worth £14.5bn a year.

Every government department would hand over funding streams that support growth, delivering annual budgets of hundreds of millions of pounds to each LEP.

Speaking to The Northern Echo at the time, Lord Heseltine said: "London didn't make this country - the provincial cities were a vital ingredient.

"Now, we have an economy run in this country - unlike in any other advanced capitalistic economy - in the capital city. The point of these reforms is to bring back, in partnership with local authorities, the role of the wealth creators."

The 228-page report recommended:

  • LEPs to bid for "single funding pots" for a minimum of five years.
  • Those pots to contain cash from up to 59 different funding streams - everything from local transport, housing and skills budgets to welfare-to work schemes and the regional growth fund.
  • Legislation to allow conurbation mayors to run larger areas, such as Tyne and Wear where they are wanted.
  • Extra legal powers for Chambers of Commerce to run business support networks.
  • LEPs to approve courses run by Further Education Colleges, to ensure they reflect local labour requirements.
  • Local Growth Teams, made up of clusters of LEPs, to identify economic opportunities.
  • Ministers and civil servants to have formal links with individual LEPs and to visit them regularly.