By Richard Johnstone | 10 January 2014
Counties in England have been ‘excluded’ from the government’s growth strategy and need to be given greater financial powers to ensure the economic recovery is spread across the country, councils have said.
The County Councils Network warned that not including all authorities in devolution policies such City Deals and Community Budgets risked entrenching inequalities across the UK.
In its submission to the communities and local government select committee’s call for evidence on fiscal devolution yesterday, the CCN said the current ‘narrow focus’ on cities was a mistake.
The government agreed City Deals with the eight core cities outside London in July 2012, and a further round of 20 deals are currently being negotiated with other cities.
In addition, all 28 city areas were provided with a £50m fund to develop local programmes to tackle youth unemployment last November.
Cities minister Greg Clark has said powers will be devolved to the rest of England through local growth deals, to be negotiated between the government and local enterprise partnerships for 2015/16 as part of the creation of the Single Local Growth Fund.
However, the CCN said the different programmes, and exclusion of counties from schemes such as the youth contract, risked creating a two-speed recovery between urban and non-urban areas.
Unequal fiscal devolution could also prevent counties from tackling the socio-economic problems created by the government’s deficit reduction programme and service pressures resulting from demographic changes.
‘When ambitious county and county unitary councils have extensive plans to deliver jobs and prosperity for their residents, it’s crazy for the government to stop them simply because they are not cities,’ CCN chair David Hodge said.
‘This isn’t a zero-sum game – cities should get devolved powers too, but it’s clear counties can make just as good, if not better, use of fiscal devolution.
‘Counties are some of the most innovative parts of UK plc – we have a higher rate of new business registrations in CCN member areas compared to the core cities and metropolitan boroughs. It is short-sighted and counterproductive to exclude us from fiscal devolution.’
