NICK Clegg vowed today (June 4) that the region will be given the chance to reverse decades of Whitehall power-grabbing – describing the future as “exciting”.

The deputy prime minister said he “strongly endorses” the campaign launched by the The Northern Echo - and other North-East newspapers – to secure vital powers and funding.

And he pledged that a spending review, later this month, would be a “significant moment” in the long drive to loosen London’s iron grip on decision-making across England.

That review – on June 26 – will see George Osborne reveal the size of the “single funding pots” to be made available to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), from 2015.

In March, the Treasury briefed that the pots would contain only “lowish billions” – not the £17.5bn-a-year advocated by Lord Heseltine, in a groundbreaking report.

And further doubt was thrown on the commitment to devolution when Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, warned LEPs were incapable of handling huge sums of public money.

This week, the region’s newspapers joined together to press the case for ministers to push through the Heseltine report - to allow the North-East to control its economic destiny.

Quizzed in the Commons, Mr Clegg said: “The more we can devolve power and control over money and decision making from Whitehall to the town hall, and from the town hall to local areas, the better.

“One of the exciting insights of the Heseltine report - which we are determined to act on - is precisely to give local areas, led by the local enterprise partnerships, a real opportunity to draw down powers and resources from Whitehall.

Asked about this paper’s ‘NEvolution’ campaign, to secure more powers and larger budgets, Mr Clegg said: “I strongly endorse that.

“We have already announced that we are going to implement the vast majority of the Heseltine recommendations - 81 of the 89.

“That really will be a significant moment, when we break from that long, long tradition - which has prevailed under Governments of all persuasions - of over-centralisation in England.

Pointing also to ‘City Deals’ and devolution of business rates, Mr Clegg added: “It will leave this country significantly more devolved by the end of this parliament than we found it at the beginning of the parliament.”

However, the deputy prime minister gave no further hints about which areas of spending will be handed over to LEPs - partnerships of business and local council leaders.

The Chancellor has suggested only housing, transport - which was already being devolved - and skills, minus the huge pot for apprenticeships, will be included.

It is likely that responsibility for job support schemes, business support and allocating cash from the regional growth fund will stay in Whitehall.

And Lord Heseltine’s call for £6.5bn-a-year of capital spending to be handed over is also thought unlikely to be accepted.

Mr Cable argued that key spending areas in his own department – innovation funds and skills budgets –must be administered from Whitehall, to ensure value for money.

And he said, of the £70bn Heseltine plan: “We were never going to go down that road - and we won’t be going down that road.”

The June 26 announcement of the limited spending pot will trigger a bidding war by England’s 37 LEPs, which must submit viable applications in order to receive any cash.

There are three LEPs in this region – in Tees Valley, the North Eastern (including County Durham) and York, North Yorkshire and East Riding.