The move raised hopes that the money could alleviate the region's credit squeeze.
Giving money to alleviate poverty, while at the same time enabling it, is not transparent, not accountable, and does not provide value for money.
Sir Rod advised using relatively small sums of money to alleviate individual transport bottlenecks, rather than blowing billions on grands projets.
While some of the money would alleviate today's budget problems, the primary goal is to create a reliable long-term revenue source to finance the authority's huge capital program for maintenance and construction.
The non-recurrent funding on which the service relies could be channelled into predictable payment mechanisms so that providers can plan further ahead, ensure value for money and alleviate some of the most pressing workforce issues.
On 23 February the Local Government Association warned that planned council tax rises to pay for social care in 2016 to 2017 will not bring in enough money to alleviate the growing pressure on the vital services for elderly and disabled people.
Annual pilgrimages of political leaders to the north have been, for the most part, political theatre, accompanied by photo ops and platitudes to the residents asking for more money to alleviate the glut of problems in the region.
The writer's charities of choice were the Lumos Foundation, her own charity aimed at closing down all child institutions and orphanages around the world by 2050, as well as the Volant Charitable Trust, which raises money to alleviate social deprivation and for research into multiple sclerosis, which killed Rowling's mother.
The 45-page report also asserted that the Treasury, in defiance of what the panel claimed was Congress's clear intent when it passed the bailout bill in October, had taken "no steps to use any of this money to alleviate the foreclosure crisis".
Porter said that extra council tax-raising powers would not bring in enough money to alleviate the pressure on social care and that councils will not receive most of the new funding in the Better Care Fund until the end of the decade, but services for elderly and vulnerable people are at breaking point now.
