Call me a cynic, but I fully expected the slow ramping up of the ‘Northern Powerhouse’ rhetoric to wither and die once the latest election cycle had come and gone. Such is the general feeling toward those holding the purse and policy strings in Whitehall. There have been a number of interesting debates developing, especially given the rise in apparent nationalism in both Scotland (the tight referendum and the rise of the SNP) and England (calls for an English Parliament and a hefty bunch of votes for UKIP). As regions like Greater Manchester and Yorkshire and the Humber have economies and populations that equal or better Scotland and Wales, it was only a matter of time before English devolution was taken seriously. As Nick Clegg once said, “the cat is out of the bag” on UK devolution.
Therefore it perhaps was slightly surprising to see the Chancellor up here again talking about Greater Manchester and city devolution. The deal sees the region put in charge of it’s own housing, transport, skills and policing – on top of the localised NHS deal that was struck last year. Perhaps the Tories are serious about this after all? The only two cities with existing devolution deals in England are, of course Manchester and Sheffield (albeit a watered down model compared to that over the other side of the Pennines).
The keystone of this agreement is the acceptance of a Metropolitan Mayor who has the power to make decisions locally and work alongside Leaders from the region’s local authorities. The Mayor would be a local figurehead, whom to which overall responsibility would fall and would be democratically chosen by the electorate.
Initial feeling is that the acceptance of a formal Mayor is likely to prove a sticking point for some Combined Authorities. Especially those in city regions that have a less metropolitan “feel” in their make up. An elected Mayor for Leeds would also, presumably have responsibility for Huddersfield, Halifax and Wakefield, whereas one for Sheffield would have to agree with politicians from Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Chesterfield before any agreement can take place. I suspect the politics around Birmingham could be even more fractured.
For instance, It is believed that the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority favour a Cabinet approach to regional decision making that would give each town a more equal say and therefore distribution of funding. Undoubtedly Osbourne will stick to his guns on elected mayors and therefore a major hurdle could be created. Council’s may point to the polls regarding mayors as an indicator that they are not wanted. Only Bristol out of nine cities voted in favour in 2012. Having voted ‘Yes’ at the time in the Sheffield vote, the cases for and against weren’t often made clear enough.
Unlike in Manchester, the political infrastructure in other cities is still relatively immature. In some cases, these towns have few connections to their core cities. Manchester exists, much like the City of London at the centre of the region and therefore provides a sensible point for power to reside. Not so the case elsewhere in the country. It’ll be interesting to see how that debate develops.
Regardless, the decision is welcomed for our cities to be given the opportunity to stand on their own feet and allocate funding where most appropriate. Hundreds of years of policy that encourages centralisation to the detriment of other regions (and soon the detriment of the capital given pressures on house prices and transport etc.) hopefully can begin to be corrected. Ultimately successes (and failures) will have accountability at a local level, which should help to grow economies, create jobs and revitalise local politics.
In fact, I suspect that certain services are much better delivered on this scale (e.g. planning, highways, refuse) so it may prove to be an interesting few years for our cities and the make up of our existing local authorities given pressures to continually find efficiencies.
Photo Source: Manchester Evening News, http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/news-opinion/devo-manc-give-take-back-8059435
underonesky 