By Richard Johnstone | 4 May 2012
The government’s lack of support and information for elected mayors campaigns contributed to voters’ widespread rejection of the structure in the ten referendums held yesterday, according to a localism think-tank.
Today's results show that voters in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Leeds, Coventry, Bradford, Sheffield and Wakefield have rejected the plan. However, Bristol has bucked the trend and approved the post.
Liam Scott-Smith, head of external affairs at the New Local Government Network, told Public Finance that the results ‘haven’t been positive’ for the local mayors agenda.
Examining the campaign, Scott-Smith said the lack of detail about the role of mayors was key to the results. The government decided not to define mayoral powers before the votes, favouring instead a model whereby newly elected mayors would negotiate their specific powers with Whitehall.
‘People were asked to vote for more politicians without knowing what that would do for their area,’ Scott-Smith said.
He added that the government’s decision to agree to devolve powers to Manchester without requiring the move to a mayoral system also hurt the prospects.
Manchester’s ‘city deal’ came after Liverpool had agreed to introduce a mayor as part of a similar agreement. Scott-Smith said that the Manchester agreement had shown that ‘if you play hardball you can get extra powers anyway’ without governance reforms.
‘The Conservatives said before they got in [to government] that elected mayors was a big thing for them, but when it comes to the crunch they haven’t invested much in making it work,’ he said. ‘I’m quite sure David Cameron is in favour, but why wasn’t he stumping on it?’ he asked.
‘Is that because the parties don’t support it or councillors in the cities don’t support it?’
Speaking last night after the indications of the no votes became apparent, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said cities would continue to have a 'big say’, with or without mayors.
He said that he was not ‘hung up’ on forms of governance, and that more city deals would be agreed to provide greater powers to cities.
In Liverpool, Labour council leader Joe Anderson was, as predicted, elected mayor.
Salford, which had also moved to the mayoral system ahead of the national timetable, held its election yesterday. The result has not yet been declared.
The government’s lack of support and information for elected mayors campaigns contributed to voters’ widespread rejection of the structure in the ten referendums held yesterday, according to a localism think-tank.
Today's results show that voters in Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Leeds, Coventry, Bradford, Sheffield and Wakefield have rejected the plan. However, Bristol has bucked the trend and approved the post.
Liam Scott-Smith, head of external affairs at the New Local Government Network, told Public Finance that the results ‘haven’t been positive’ for the local mayors agenda.
Examining the campaign, Scott-Smith said the lack of detail about the role of mayors was key to the results. The government decided not to define mayoral powers before the votes, favouring instead a model whereby newly elected mayors would negotiate their specific powers with Whitehall.
‘People were asked to vote for more politicians without knowing what that would do for their area,’ Scott-Smith said.
He added that the government’s decision to agree to devolve powers to Manchester without requiring the move to a mayoral system also hurt the prospects.
Manchester’s ‘city deal’ came after Liverpool had agreed to introduce a mayor as part of a similar agreement. Scott-Smith said that the Manchester agreement had shown that ‘if you play hardball you can get extra powers anyway’ without governance reforms.
‘The Conservatives said before they got in [to government] that elected mayors was a big thing for them, but when it comes to the crunch they haven’t invested much in making it work,’ he said. ‘I’m quite sure David Cameron is in favour, but why wasn’t he stumping on it?’ he asked.
‘Is that because the parties don’t support it or councillors in the cities don’t support it?’
Speaking last night after the indications of the no votes became apparent, Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said cities would continue to have a 'big say’, with or without mayors.
He said that he was not ‘hung up’ on forms of governance, and that more city deals would be agreed to provide greater powers to cities.
In Liverpool, Labour council leader Joe Anderson was, as predicted, elected mayor.
Salford, which had also moved to the mayoral system ahead of the national timetable, held its election yesterday. The result has not yet been declared.
