England’s metro mayors should be given greater powers over housing, schools and jobs to truly transform our cities and drive the economy, a new report from former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Heseltine has concluded.
Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, was at the launch today in Birmingham of a report titled “Empowering English Cities”, authored by Lord Michael Heseltine. He was joined by mayors from the other Combined Authority regions, including Andy Burnham and Andy Street.
The report includes a number of recommendations to Government on strengthening English devolution, including:
- Government to transfer day-to-day responsibility for affordable housing, school performance, skills and employment programmes to combined authorities
- Mayoral combined authorities to have greater powers to raise local taxes – including receiving the local road tax, airport passenger duty and tourism taxes
- More capital funding for transport, skills and housing to be devolved from Government departments
- New Government Department for the English Regions led by a Cabinet minister and a Metro Mayors committee chaired by the Prime Minister
Speaking at the launch, Steve Rotheram said:
“Devolution gives us the opportunity to fix a political system that is no longer fit for purpose. Devolving real power and funding to the city regions, and enabling decisions to be made at a more local level, can start to rebalance the economy and restore trust in the political process.
“While Westminster has been log-jammed dealing with Brexit, we have been proving that we can get things done. The whole point of devolution is that at a local level we are able to make decisions about our future better than Whitehall mandarins who know nothing of our specific, local circumstances. But the government has gone cold on further devolution, so whoever becomes PM needs to commit to devolving further powers and resource so that areas can shape their own destinies.
“As this report concludes, we must have real devolution, with further powers and funding devolved to city regions like ours.
“Only then will we see the inequality and injustice that has grown up over generations reduce and see our country fulfil its true potential.”
A copy of the report is available here