Welcome to F.T. Politics, the Financial Times's podcast on British politics.

I'm Sebastian Payne and in the second of our summer specials were breaking out of the news cycle

to take a look at some of the big policy questions facing the UK.

This week we'll be looking at devolution and infrastructure.

Over the last decade there's been a big shift in

Britain away from centralized power in Westminster to empowering local government

with directly elected mayors, extra cash spending powers.

But at the same time promises were made to improve the nation's crumbling infrastructure,

particularly in the north.

We're going to be discussing how much progress has been made with the so-called devolution revolution

and crucially what is still to be done. I've drawn by some very fine public policy experts to dive

into this today. Andrew Adonisonis who is head of the National Infrastructure

Commission, a Labour Pier and former FT Public Policy Editor, Julian Glover, a journalist who was a former

special advisor in the Department for Transport,

plus Brian Groom who is a former senior editor at the FD who now resides in Manchester.

Thank you all for joining.

Devolution is a word we hear a lot used by politicians as a good thing but it can also be a way

of skirting around those difficult spending and political decisions at the centre of government.

Why take a decision nationally when it can be taken locally?

It was the mantra of one former minister. The march of passing down power

symbolised by George Osborne, the former chancellor, who held his Northern

powerhouse project, railways, invest. the former Chancellor who held his Northern Powerhouse Project.

...