Greater Manchester is set to be given more devolution power including giving Mayor Andy Burnham new powers over planing and the go ahead for bringing local rail
Services into its transport network
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner will outline Labour’s devolution plans for England in is being billed as the biggest overhaul of local government in more than 50 years in a speech in Leeds this afternoon
Metro Mayors will be given control of rail services along the lines of London which will enable them to introduce an integrated system not unlike the Oyster Card
Under planning they will be given powers to set the strategic direction of development in their regions through “spatial development strategies”
Nationally Rayner will announce that devolution deals will be extended along with plans plans for mergers in areas where there are currently two tiers of local authority – smaller district and larger county councilsin a bid to streamline services.
Labour hopes to transform the way that local decision making takes place given that around half of England’s population live in an area not covered by a devolution deal.
Rayner is expected to say that the plans are “a turning point when we finally see communities, people and places across England begin to take back control over the things that matter to them”.
Writing on X Andy Burnham said
“We are proud that the model of devolution pioneered by GM is being extended to the whole of England.Trying to run everything from Whitehall is one of the reasons the country isn’t working.Letting more places decide more for themselves is one of the ways we will fix it.”
Jonathan Carr-West, Chief Executive, LGIU, said:
“The Government’s devolution agenda as set out in today’s White Paper is ambitious and far reaching. At LGIU, we have for many years argued that complex problems find their best solutions locally and that power needs to be devolved from Whitehall to our regions, councils and communities. Localism is both a democratic good and a better way of getting things done.
On that basis, we welcome the White Paper’s intent and direction of travel, though we believe it should also include a real commitment to fiscal devolution.
But devolution is a process not an event. The most important thing is not what’s in the White Paper but how we respond to it, how the government seeks to implement it and the conversations that sit around that.
From a local government perspective, the White Paper holds out promise but also creates risk. We need to ensure that the coming months are not just spent in fractious debate about the appropriate size for unitary councils. Our agenda cannot just be about shuffling existing powers and functions around between different sized units of government. This must be about genuine added value and better outcomes for communities whatever the structures we end up with.
As a sector, we need to rise to the challenges the White Paper presents and to fill some of the gaps that it leaves. As we formulate our response to the paper, we must hold on to some key principles and continue to push for: clarity of purpose; a solid constitutional foundation; metrics, evaluation and data to measure progress and build innovation; a functional funding system as an essential component of devolution; a clear vision for towns and rural areas, as well as city-regions; and greater dialogue with local leaders as well as combined authority mayors.
Devolution on its own will not transform public services or fix the financial foundations of local government. We need to see all these agendas as a single piece of thinking and we need to ensure that no one of them holds up the others.”
