By Richard Johnstone | 27 January 2012
Liverpool council is poised to take greater control of the government’s flagship back-to-work scheme in the city under moves to create a directly elected mayor.
The authority and the government are negotiating over the powers that would transfer to the mayor in talks set to conclude next month, in time for a election for the position on May 3. Plans to hold a referendum have been dropped.
The ‘City Deal’ between Whitehall and the council would include an extension of the government’s Work Programme and a ‘Liverpool approach’ to welfare. The likely agreement follows Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg’s call late last year for a series of bespoke accords to ‘unlock growth’ in cities.
A Liverpool spokesman said the authority had been in detailed discussions with ministers since last September, when the government asked council leader Joe Anderson what additional resources and powers the authority wanted.
The spokesman told Public Finance that the ‘asks’ included an expanded version of the Work Programme to focus on the city’s ‘big issue’ of unemployment.
Under the ‘Liverpool approach’, unemployed people would be supported for longer with the aim of ensuring they gain a qualification. Jobcentre Plus would also be given more autonomy in the city.
The agreement is also likely to transfer as much as £150m in cash and assets to the mayor, including some government-owned property.
Powers to create five new Mayoral Development Zones are also being sought.
Announcing the negotiations, Anderson said that the government had made a ‘really compelling offer’.
He said: ‘The government came to me last autumn and asked what additional powers and resources we would want, and we have spent the last few months negotiating hard with them.
‘We are now in negotiations over a deal that will, I believe, enable us to make a real and positive difference to the prosperity of our city and give all our residents the chance of a brighter and better future. It will give us more control over our destiny and shifts power away from Whitehall to Liverpool after decades of the tide flowing the other way.’
Once the deal is struck, the council would need a two-thirds majority vote to back the change to the mayoral system.
Authorities have had the power to change this way since 2007, under the Local Authorities (Mayoral Elections) (England and Wales) regulations. It was these powers that Leicester City Council used to introduce a directly elected mayor last year.
If no agreement is reached with government, Liverpool would still hold a referendum on May 3 to adopt the mayoral system, under separate proposals in the Localism Act.
Such a vote is still scheduled to take place in ten other English cities, and earlier this week Cities Minister Greg Clark announced that if the change is approved, elections will take place on November 15.
A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: ‘Government is discussing city deals with all of the core cities, an offer which… is being extended to more of England's cities.
‘As part of this, Liverpool has put a series of proposals to government, which ministers are considering.’
