Manchester: The cranes on the skyline of Manchester reflect a boom under way in this former industrial hub in northern England that is leading the charge for wresting greater local powers from London.
As a general election looms, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government is holding out its "Northern Powerhouse" programme as a key achievement and promising greater economic clout to boot.
The Greater Manchester region has a population of some three million people and comprises the cities of Manchester and Salford plus eight neighbouring towns and boroughs, including Bury, Stockport and Wigan.
"We will have an influence that will mean local people can determine what the priorities are," Peter Smith, head of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), told AFP from a modest office in Wigan, whose council he also heads.
Following a referendum last year that saw Scotland fail to gain independence from the rest of the United Kingdom but win the promise of more devolution, the government is pushing for England`s northern cities to be given greater economic freedom.
Though eight of Greater Manchester`s 10 local councils are Labour-led, experts do not see the push as a deliberate attempt to try to suddenly change the political landscape of the area.
"What`s driven it is the Scottish independence election last year," said Paul Swinney, senior economist at Centre for Cities, an independent think tank.
"Now that Scotland`s going to get some (more) devolution down, it really adds to the weight of why are we not seeing devolution in certain places within England," Swinney said.Smith, who is also a lord for the Labour party in the upper house of parliament, said he did not think the Northern Powerhouse "is going to have any influence whatsoever in this election" on May 7 but welcomed moves to help Greater Manchester.
"We certainly have our differences with the government, particularly on the way they`re funding local authorities. The northern local authorities have suffered the worse of the reductions in public spending, so we`ve had it tough up here in that sense," he said.
Finance minister George Osborne, who has saluted the GMCA for showing "leadership across the political divide", has spoken frequently of the need for the North to be a "powerhouse" for the overall British economy despite five years of austerity under Prime Minister David Cameron`s government.
Experts say such moves are necessary to help bridge the wealth gap between London and well-to-do towns and cities elsewhere in southeastern England and former industrial centres of the north such as Manchester and Sheffield.
Manchester, which was at the forefront of Britain`s industrial revolution, is again leading the way among its northern neighbours.
A huge regeneration project has occurred across the east of the city since the last general election in 2010 -- with new housing and businesses being built where traditional manufacturing industries such as textiles and coal once stood.
In Salford, the BBC has relocated a few thousand of its staff to MediaCityUK, a vast site on the banks of the Manchester Ship Canal transporting freight to Liverpool.
According to the Treasury, England`s northwest has the fastest employment growth in the country, creating 117,000 jobs in the past year.On one of Manchester`s main shopping streets, 21-year-old market researcher Rion Barker welcomed moves aimed at narrowing the North-South divide.
"Effectively the country is run from London and London do tend to focus on themselves," he said.
"Like with Scotland, we can have more devolution and more power for ourselves."
Greater Manchester recently won an unprecedented deal giving it a major say on how to spend its £6.0-billion ($8.9-billion, 8.3 billion-euro) share of the budget for the state-run National Health Service.
Under the devolution deal, Greater Manchester is also getting its own elected mayor in 2017 to rival the role held by Boris Johnson in London.
Osborne has meanwhile unveiled plans for a "Northern Hub" by 2019 -- a £600-million railway investment programme aimed at boosting the northern economy thanks to shorter journey times from Manchester to neighbouring cities Liverpool and Leeds.
Smith said electrifying train routes was about "economic connectivity that will help people in the north to do business with each other".
