"Northern Powerhouse" is just a euphemism for the ongoing regionalisation dictated by the EU, but comprehensively rejected in a referendum in 2004 (so much so that the remaining 3 scheduled referenda were hurriedly cancelled before they could return the same result)
It's like the EU Constitution being rejected by referenda in France and Netherlands, then embodied in the Lisbon Treaty anyway so that it could not be voted down again somewhere else - the same Lisbon Treaty which was pretty much the last thing the Gordon Brown administration did, actively facilitated by David Cameron (who COULD have forced a General Election, or simply raised the matter in the Commons, but chose to collaborate with Labour in smuggling this very important issue through with virtually no debate at all)
Also the same Lisbon Treaty which prevented Cameron's promised 2010 Referendum taking place, and which effectively nullifies any meaningful outcome if the supposed 2016/17 one.
plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose