Things to celebrate and be extremely worried about - West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin reacts to government's Levelling Up plans

However, she also warned Levelling Up secretary, Michael Gove, that he had a "job of work" to do and re-issued an invite to him to visit West Yorkshire and see for himself the issues of the region.

Mr Gove said there are “12 big missions” the Government wants to achieve by 2030 in order to improve the lives of those outside London and the South East.

The White Paper will set out a series of wide-ranging national “missions” – from improving public transport to ensuring access to 5G broadband – to be enshrined in law.

There was also an announcement about the shift of power from Whitehall to local leaders with every part of England to get ‘London style’ powers and mayor if they wish.

Ms Brabin said this was to be celebrated but expressed concern over public transport.

Reacting to the White Paper whilst in Leeds, she said: "Everyone around that Cabinet table must be tasked with levelling up in their own department.”

Ms Brabin said a lack of clarity from the Government over buses was already leaving her “extremely worried” about services, as companies struggled with low footfall caused by the pandemic.

"There are things to celebrate, which are extended powers for mayors and for local leaders – that’s good. There’s also a commitment to 2030 as a mission statement, so those short-term beauty contests, where we have to bid at speed, they don’t help our communities, so I’m really pleased we’ve got that longevity.

“The detail – that’s where it’s really important. Is this double-accounting, is this new money, where’s the actual granular detail, how soon is it going to be delivered?

“I’ve invited Michael Gove to come to West Yorkshire on a number of occasions, I’m really hoping he will take up the offer and we can get to work.”

Mr Gove defended the funding of landmark levelling up promises as he insisted the Government will “change the economic model of this country" and was asked how much of the money committed to the plans is fresh funding.

He said: “What we’re doing is we’re taking numbers from a Treasury spreadsheet and transforming it into real change in people’s lives. There’s a difference between Rishi (Sunak) announcing that he’s going to give me money and me spending it.

“But if you are in Wolverhampton or Sheffield, and you’re getting new cash to invest in your city centre, that is new money.”

Mr Gove suggested he has asked the Chancellor for more cash to play with adding: “Well, in this life we never get everything we want, but, in the words of Mick Jagger, you might not always get what you want but sometimes you get what you need.”

Treasury Chief Secretary Simon Clarke later said the Government had committed a fresh £150 billion across all departments.

However, leading health expert Professor Michael Marmot suggested the Government had not invested enough.

“The £5-6 billion currently allocated to levelling up is tiny given the historic scale of the problem,” he said.

The promise to “level up” forgotten and deprived communities was a key theme of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s 2019 general election campaign which saw the Tories make huge gains in Labour’s previously impregnable “red wall” heartlands.

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