The Labour leader has made a start with proposals for enterprise and extra ministers for the regions, but a permanent shift of power out of Whitehall is needed
Ed Miliband’s announcement on boosting local enterprise partnerships and appointing Whitehall ministers for the regions is a start but more should be expected.
Labour’s adaptation of Lord Heseltine’s Growth Review shows an ability to think outside the box, which should continue – not least because the Conservatives will soon match this with their own proposals. However, corporatism alone is not enough. Labour’s USP is the much wider democratic context that it must bring to the table.
Enormous political events, the Scottish referendum, local austerity, the European elections and fixed-term governments should all impact on our thinking and ambition. In the absence of ideas about how a democratic future will look in our localities, politicians will look depoliticised, frightened of trusting the people and anxious to keep central control – rather than pitching a bold, liberating vision for the country’s future.
Without the bigger democratic picture the patronage of nine extra ministers in Whitehall will be seen as the centre finding a new way of controlling the regions and localities, not the other way around.
The relationship must change from father to child to peer-to-peer, one not about conditional gifts but new rights for the localities. Not largesse from Whitehall but a permanent shift of power backed up by democratic checks and political accountability.
Business should be encouraged to bring its talent to the table but not to be Whitehall’s cat’s-paw in the localities. As drafted, Labour’s proposals would give business a veto. If they don’t approve of bids, they can prevent a locality from even entering the LEP bidding competition against other areas.
Their involvement must be on the basis of partnership and empowered by local government, with both institutions free to inspire creativity and entrepreneurship – not as surrogates for the bland aspirations of the Man in Whitehall. The proposals also need to be big enough to measure up to the task of English devolution. It is right for Scotland and Wales to have clear governance, income tax assignment and defined powers. Yet in England there is as yet no proposal or even an ambition for structural devolution.
What message does this send ahead of a referendum in Scotland (on separation) and possibly in Wales (on tax powers)? While we await clarity from all the parties on English devolution, the message remains that devolution is an expedient, not a principle – something to placate the noisy and annoyed, rather than because we believe in it.
Alongside a welcome economic stimulus to the regions and localities, it is essential to base our democracy on principles, not botches. To be believable, these principles must apply to England as well as to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Just creating extra ministers in Whitehall and a boost to LEPs does not do it.
Giving English local government the powers, finance and independence from Whitehall that the nations of Scotland and Wales have has to be the next step. This settlement is commonplace in most western democracies and must be entrenched – as in the Scotland and Wales Acts – beyond easy repeal.
The last government’s regional development provisions were repealed in days by an incoming government and could be again unless the localities feel ownership and the powers are rooted in our places, our democracy and our hearts and minds. Without this vision, Ed Miliband’s ‘biggest change in a hundred years’ to the regions will be little more just a highly conditional stimulus to LEPs. It really depends on what comes next.
Graham Allen MP chairs the Commons Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform
This opinion piece was first published in the May edition on Public Finance magazine
