20 October 2006
English cities should be empowered to drive forward their own economic plans, with greater control over transport, planning and skills, according to government-commissioned research.
A report out this week from The Work Foundation raised the flag for city-regions ahead of the forthcoming local government white paper. It called on ministers to begin to devolve governance powers to thriving cities such as Manchester and Bristol so that local policies are better co-ordinated and match people's work and leisure patterns.
Alexandra Jones, associate director at the foundation and the report's lead author, said: 'When cities are vibrant and dynamic, positive things start happening to entire regions of the country far outside the city itself. But at the moment policy making is too centralised and may be acting as a barrier to growth.
'City-regions reflect the real economic geography of the country – how people actually live their lives. People criss-cross administrative boundaries every day, and granting cities city-region status would help them develop policies that reflect how people live.'
The October 19 report, Enabling cities in the knowledge economy, says an administrative revolution in local government should be avoided and structures should develop gradually after authorities have shown they can work together.
The foundation is not arguing for extra structures, Jones told Public Finance. 'Cities should put forward their own business models of what works,' she said. This 'will be different in different cities and at different times… One size doesn't fit all but there should be common principles'.
The report says regional development agencies should remain but their role should evolve towards supporting explicitly city-regional based development strategies and supporting medium-sized cities to work together.
Cities such as Norwich, Stoke-on-Trent and Wakefield should not be overlooked but rather encouraged to think about how they could complement larger ones. Where smaller cities are located close to each other – such as the East Midlands triangle of Nottingham, Derby and Leicester – they should aim to collaborate to secure economies of scale and jointly access sources of funding.
The research was commissioned by the Department for Communities and Local Government to feed into the white paper process, as ministers have increasingly indicated their support for the city-regions idea.
Local government minister Phil Woolas, appearing before the Commons' communities and local government select committee on October 16, said city-regions were important in allowing local government to have a greater role in economic leadership and regeneration. But he remained tight-lipped on the detail of the white paper. He said the government was looking to authorities themselves to come up with governance proposals.
'Some people want a city-region mayor, some people want executive power with an appointed individual, some people want a federal leadership, which would elect a leader from amongst themselves, some people want a directly elected executive. The white paper process has to draw boundaries about what is possible and what is not,' Woolas said.
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