Theresa May could turn her luck around if she invests in the Northern Powerhouse

If May is going to take this seriously she needs to make some changes, like setting up offices for civil servants in the North and ending her squabbles with George Osborne

Earlier this week, Philip Hammond announced a £400m boost for transport links in the North. Today he is expected to expand on his plans at the Conservative Party Conference (Getty)

Like skinny jeans, the Northern Powerhouse is back in fashion. This week, the Conservative Party descends on Manchester for their annual conference and the North will be a hot topic. Already today the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, will announce plans for new funds for rail, and last week Jim O’Neill, one of its architects, declared it “back on Theresa May’s agenda."

This is welcome news. The Northern Powerhouse is more than a political catchphrase: it had, and still has, the potential to be transformative.

As Chief of Staff at the Government’s National Infrastructure Commission until last year, I saw the work ready to go: infrastructure plans, technology pilots, community projects, public-private partnerships and the pursuit of a re-empowered north of England.

All this, however, was pushed aside amidst post-referendum politics. Some have claimed that May and her former joint chiefs of staff deliberately sabotaged the plans. I do not believe this. Faced with a challenge as vast as leaving the European Union, I understand that initiatives are deprioritised, but dropping the Northern Powerhouse was a mistake whose correction we should all welcome.

With the potential to create 850,000 new jobs, boost the North’s underperforming productivity and reenergise one of the greatest regions of our country, the Prime Minister will rightly this week hit the “reboot” button. Here is a plan for how she, the Government, and we could do it.

First, invest. Last week, the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, a lobby group chaired by Osborne, identified a set of schemes to kick-start growth, including: £1bn for portable nuclear reactors, £30m to develop a 5G network in the north-east and £20m for The Campus for Ageing and Vitality in Newcastle. Yes, these are large sums of money, and I know from experience that London-based Treasury civil servants will resist, but we should see these projects as investments rather than splurges. If successful, the returns on Britain leading the world in nuclear energy, telecoms and care for the elderly will far surpass the initial cost.

Second, there is an army of passionate, capable, cross-party parliamentarians raring to go. Neil O’Brien, the recently elected Conservative MP for Harborough, is a man of extraordinary intellect who drew up some of the original plans for the Northern Powerhouse. On the opposite side of the House, Lucy Powell, MP for Manchester Central, established the Manchester Innovation Fund before entering office, precisely the type of work we need replicated all across the North.

These are just two of the many politicians who should form a new all-party parliamentary group to remind investors, planners and the people that this is something all parts of the political spectrum support.

Third, civil servants working on northern policy should live in the North. Devolution to city regions is a welcome work in progress, but in the meantime London-based parts of the government such as the Treasury, the Department for Transport and Highways England still have enormous influence. The government should buy office space in Manchester or Hull or Liverpool (it’s cheaper up there too) and move these civil servants. You simply cannot understand a community unless you are part of it.

Fourth, boy George and mother Theresa must end their family squabble. Exciting politics but bad policy. She remains the Prime Minister and he is, like him or not, the man with the vision behind this all. Together, not divided, they might actually deliver for the people of the North.

Fifth, I worked on the plan for “high speed north” – a transport network to bring the towns and cities of the North together – and it should be put into practice. High Speed two is coming and should be connected to new east-west rail connectivity in the North, HS3. Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, recently dropped these projects. Philip Hammond has done the right thing with his announcement today by essentially picking them up again. Meanwhile, on the roads, some relatively costless upgrades on the M62 could save thousands of commuters valuable time every morning and evening.

Finally, the North has people, communities and cultures as strong as you find anywhere. In Hull, where most of my family comes from, any negativity is slapped down: “yer for-ever mernin kid!” (“Mernin” is moaning, for the uninitiated.) This civic society – found alongside the region’s world-leading sports teams, universities, ancient town squares, pubs, docks, and more – needs to be harnessed. Manchester’s two football goliaths, for example, already do good community work but could do even more, like partnering with local restaurants or sponsoring new academy schools or helping to advertise the city as a tourist destination.

Hit reboot, May, and you could lay the foundations of your own legacy within those of a new, overdue, Northern Powerhouse.

Benjamin Clayton was Chief of Staff at the British Government’s National Infrastructure Commission. He is currently a Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government