In an impressively co-ordinated display of unity last June, 33 newspapers in the north of England demanded greater devolution of powers and resources to the region, in a campaign entitled ‘Power Up The North’.

This demand resulted from a perception that the Northern Powerhouse project, initiated in 2014 by then chancellor George Osborne, was losing momentum and showing little sign of redressing the economic and social imbalance between the North and South of England.