A report out today from the Labour Think Tank,Labour Together recommends more powers could be given to regional Mayors such as Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester
The report,Pride and Prosperity-A decade to restore Civic Power sets out a path to increased local political agency and an end to the centralised state identifying that to many people in the UK, the ballot box is used only in protest not expectation, that in many elections the voting public have simply lost trust that anything will change, and as such they look for ever more radical answers.
Devolution, and an end to England’s ‘Whitehall knows best’ approach, can change this it says by giving regional Mayors more control over health and education
While Greater Manchester has the ability to set strategy for the area’s health services, it does not have full control over budgets.
The report says that the current Government conceptualise a project of restoring power to local areas and their democratic institutions, to ensure the constitution reflects real social and political identities, not a project of granting new powers in some radical experiment.
Sovereignty,it says flows from the people to local authorities, mayors and parliament, not the other way round.
The report says that mayors should be allowed to appoint commissioners to oversee other public services as well, including regulating academy schools and running probation services.
“Over the coming years, this would mean strategic authorities and local authorities becoming responsible for health, education, criminal justice and other services to increase place-based leadership, accountability and integration.”
Public services, it says, should be delivered by and be accountable to democratic
institutions, matching the geography of the people who use them, supported by tiers of
government above
The report also recommends the House of Lords becoming a second chamber of parliament reflecting place-based identities and the democratic legitimacy of the nations and regions.
