WHEN the historic Greater Manchester Devolution deal was signed last year it was said more key decision making powers would be granted to our local leaders — but what does this mean for Bolton? Politics reporter Liam Thorp looks at the agreement in more detail.

AN image of Chancellor George Osborne flanked by the leaders of all of Greater Manchester’s borough councils has done the rounds since the much-heralded devolution deal for the region was signed last year.

While commentators and political figures have constantly told us what a “historic and important” deal this is for our region, what does it all actually mean? And how will it affect everyday people in Bolton?

Devo-Manc is an important deal that that will genuinely change the way key aspects of people’s daily life are managed — and crucially by whom they are managed.

The deal was signed last November by the Chancellor and Greater Manchester’s 10 borough council leaders.

The basic principle is simple — people in our region know more about what we need to run things around here, so they should have more power to do just that.

The idea is that big decisions about where money is spent and what exactly it is spent on are made by our locally elected leaders.

Yesterday George Osborne outlined his commitment to devolution in his speech at the Conservative Party Conference when he announced a bold reform of business rates — which will give local councils like Bolton the power to keep all of the business rates it collects, rather than sending them to Whitehall to be redistributed.

Local authorities will also be able to cut rates as much as they like as the uniform business rate will also be abolished.

However the government is not simply giving away this power without a few stipulations.

One of the most significant aspects of the deal is that we, the people of the region will elect a Greater Manchester Mayor — a figurehead who will take on the chief responsibility for major areas like health, transport, planning and housing, backed up by the assembly of borough council leaders, who will have portfolios for each area.

Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd took on the temporary mayoral role earlier this year to get the devolution ball rolling — but an elected figure is expected to take full charge in 2017.

So what exactly will the new regional leader and his team of council chiefs be accountable for? Here are a few of the key areas.

HEALTH

For many, the most significant part of the Devo-Manc agenda is that the region will take on responsibility for our £6 billion health and social care budget.

This means decisions about healthcare and social services will be taken locally and not in Whitehall.

As part of the plan leaders will work to extend seven day access to GPs and other primary care services, upgrade public health schemes and also work to develop new and innovative treatments.

TRANSPORT

Under the devo-deal, the government will devolve a chunk of central funding to Greater Manchester and provide a “multi-year settlement” in the same way they do for Transport for London.

This means a new Transport for Greater Manchester body will have responsibility for how all public transport in the region is managed and funded.

In terms of buses, the government says it is happy to support new laws that could see Greater Manchester move to a franchised model of bus service delivery and crucially, provide the cash to implement this.

This means our local leaders would get to decide which companies run buses on which routes.

In return for all this transport power — the government want Greater Manchester to bring in an ‘Oyster style’ smart ticketing system for all buses and trams — which could arrive by the end of the year.

JOBS AND SKILLS

Something politicians from all sides agree on is that apprentices are a good thing and we need more of them to get the economy going.

Currently, employers get a £1,500 cash injection for every qualifying apprentice they take on and Greater Manchester leaders will now assume responsibility for this and will be able to vary the level of support they offer out depending on what they think is needed.

POLICE AND FIRE

The current Police and Crime Commissioner role will be absorbed into the Mayoral position meaning whoever is elected will oversee policing strategy and hold the force to account.

The Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Authority will be abolished and its functions will be transferred to the mayor as well.

PLANNING AND LAND

There will be a new Greater Manchester Land Commission — which will oversee how the public sector estate will be best used.

A huge database of public land will be put together in a bid to help the region meet its target of building 10,000 new homes each year.

The government is not handing all of this one over to us though — with the Housing Minister chairing the commission alongside our new mayoral leader.

A £300 million housing fund has been launched to help “unlock” stalled residential schemes and aims to help build a new wave of quality homes in the region.

These are just a few of the areas where new powers could arrive. Most agree it is a positive move to take the ability to make these decisions out of the hands of those in Whitehall and into those of the people who should know what is needed where we live — after all we elected them for that purpose.

But there are genuine concerns we will not get the settlement needed to really push forward with this historic deal — much remains to be seen about how the much heralded “northern powerhouse” will come into being and The Bolton News has joined with other newspapers across the region to call on the Chancellor to give us a Fair Devo Deal.