18 March 2005
Ministers will not force councils to hold referendums on new powerful directly elected mayors, despite wanting big cities to take up the idea.
Local government minister Nick Raynsford told Public Finance that he hoped major urban areas would be persuaded to adopt new 'city-region' mayors.
Buoyed by events in London, ministers want to see more mayors with wider-ranging powers in areas such as transport and economic policy, like the capital's Ken Livingstone, rather than replicating existing mayors outside the capital who have a limited remit.
Despite conceding that for the mayoral concept to succeed it had to be taken up by a major city other than London, Raynsford ruled out making referendums compulsory, as some pro-mayor supporters have urged.
Civil servants and policy gurus were said to be considering ways of imposing referendums for mayors, including forcing failing councils to have a vote or including a mayoral question on a normal electoral ballot.
Another option is to lower the number of people who have to sign a petition to trigger a mayoral referendum in big cities. Currently, that is set at 5% of the population.
However, Raynsford is relying on the idea of a strong, local leader appealing to authorities that have previously rejected the idea. 'I would much rather go for hearts and minds. It is right that something should be decided locally, rather than imposed,' he said.
He was confident the government's view would win out. 'I would have thought a number of communities would be interested in considering their options, I think it's likely to interest people.'
PFmar2005
