Experts back city-region creation
Ben Walker, Regeneration & Renewal - 16 December 2005
A federation of UK city-regions with revenue-raising powers should be formed to boost their competitiveness with European rivals, an influential group of city leaders, economists, development agencies and MPs said this week.
Think-tank the New Local Government Network's City-Regions Commission this week urged councils in England's big city conurbations to "blaze a trail" and form powerful city-regional bodies that could pool business rates and spend the cash on city-wide goals.
Its report calls on central government to offer financial incentives, including greater spending freedoms and decision-making powers, to persuade urban councils to create formal coalitions.
It hopes that local government minister David Miliband will become a champion of city-region bodies. The report recommends radical reform in Greater Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham, and says there could be a case for city-regional bodies in Greater Sheffield, Newcastle and Bristol.
The commission contains Professor Tony Travers, Sheffield City Council chief executive Sir Bob Kerslake, Manchester City Council leader Richard Leese and historian Dr Tristram Hunt.
Leadership of the new "city states", as Dr Hunt calls them, should be via a senate of council chiefs or an elected city-regional mayor, the commission concluded. Some big city-regions, such as Manchester, Birmingham and Sheffield, have already submitted to government plans for a group of leaders made up of collaborating councils. In this model, all council leaders would be equals, the report says.
Some members of the commission want powers to be handed to city-regions from regional development agencies, the report reveals.
One group within the commission, led by Graham Stringer MP, would like to see RDAs dissolved in favour of city-region development agencies (R&R, 9 December, p1). Stringer has written an exclusive article for Regeneration & Renewal this week explaining the group's position (see Analysis p12).