In the past 10 days there have been a whole host of government announcements that will have a significant impact on our regions. It started with the chancellor announcing £15.6bn of transport funding for intra-regional transport, followed by the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) and the local government consultation on fairer funding. The Government's industrial strategy is also incoming. While funding questions remain, the Government is starting to understand what our regions need.

 IPPR North welcomed the proposals to up core funding, introduce multi-year settlements and end competitive bidding.