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Manchester Governance and AGMA

504K views 4K replies 264 participants last post by  VDB 
#1 ·
How many seats does Greater Manchester have?

I know we've got the 4 "city of manchester" seats, but there are plenty of places in greater manchester that aren't included in this, like Stretford, Oldham, Rochdale etc.

How many seats do we have in total, and how does it compare with rival cities like Liverpool and Birmingham?
 
#3,246 ·
Crackdown at Labour conference against elected members speaking getting worse, MP's and Mayors have been barred from entering the conference floor, they are only being allowed on the conference halls balconies. On the other extreme Burnham has been invited to address the Conservative party conference where the Birmingham mayor has a key note speech. Burnham will also be speaking at a Labour fringe meeting which will likely get a lot of press coverage.
 
#3,248 ·
Is Momentuma about to oust the Pro Business centrist council.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...entum-labour-party-manchester-corbyn-13913626
When Momentum first formed four weeks after Jeremy Corbyn ’s election in 2015, panic rippled through Labour.

However you want to label those in the party uncomfortable with Corbyn’s victory - centrist, sensible or moderate, right-wing, Blairite or Tory - fear spread among them immediately of a grass-roots left-wing insurgency.

Fear they would take over the party structures, fear of MP de-selections and fear, ultimately, of loss of power.

Since then Momentum have indeed been on the march, securing key parts of Labour ’s infrastructure, including - a few weeks ago - the north west executive board.

But at Manchester’s almost 100pc Labour council , famed for its iron-clad, command-and-control, pragmatically independent leadership, all had, until recently, appeared relatively calm.

Bubbling internal rows - particularly about housing policy - and a surge in pro-Corbyn membership aside, the face of the council remained the same.

A few weeks ago, that started to change.


Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn making his keynote address to the Labour Party annual conference (Image: PA)
Due to boundary changes, October saw Manchester Labour forced to go through an ‘all-out’ candidate selection process - in which every one of the city’s 96 council seats was technically up for grabs - for the first time since 2004.

In pockets of the city, Corbynites saw their chance and mobilised, spearheaded by Momentum. And in a significant handful of cases, they were successful.

The biggest shock - largely due to his high profile - was the ousting of former lord mayor Carl Austin-Behan in favour of his Burnage branch’s freshly-anointed new secretary, Momentum member Ben Clay.

Down the road in Ancoats , sitting councillor Ollie Manco also lost his seat. His replacement, newcomer Majid Dar, is the brother of Yasmine - Momentum’s candidate in the short-lived Gorton by-election earlier this year.

In the newly-formed Piccadilly ward next door, Momentum’s Sam Wheeler, originally tipped to run as the Corbyn candidate in Gorton, comfortably took one of the three vacant seats.

Meanwhile Hulme ’s vacancy went to leftist trade unionist Annette Wright.

In fact Hulme nearly also saw the biggest upset of them all. Members almost sent executive councillor Nigel Murphy packing, particularly enraged by his signature to an anti-Corbyn letter during the 2016 leadership campaign, drawn up by council leader Sir Richard Leese .


Sir Richard Leese
So the upshot for the ‘Corbynite’ left overall?

Four new faces on the council, assuming they win their seats in May, alongside its two existing declared Momentum councillors, Yasmine Dar and John Farrell.

Six out of 96: not a huge number. But one committed Momentum activist insists this is only the start, stressing the group wants a change of direction by the council.

Certain pockets of Manchester Labour are clearly wedded to the discredited policy framework of Labour’s rightward drift under Blair and Brown - particularly in relation to planning and housing - and are clearly determined to protect their cliques and bastions within the party, at the expense of member engagement,” he says, in language reminiscent of the 1980s.

“Faced with members who are being disenfranchised by cosy cliques, Momentum will support candidates who better represent the mood of the party.”

The reference to housing and planning is key, for of all the policy divisions among Manchester Labour members right now, that is the current touchstone.



Discontent over the city’s direction in this regard has been bubbling now among councillors and party members more broadly for at least a year, making it unsurprising that Momentum would be particularly keen to run with it.

A second senior Momentum figure muses that the city’s economic policies - which have regularly seen Manchester feted nationally as a northern urban success story, including through its links with the private sector - are now out of date.

“I think an actual decision was taken in Manchester 25 years ago that we would not become a failed northern town. I think the decision was taken that ‘we will do absolutely anything to avoid that’,” they say, referencing a decision to ‘accommodate capital’ in the 1980s and 1990s.

“And I understand why that decision was taken.

“But next year the city will be the same size as it was in 1971 and the year after it will be bigger. So we’ve won that fight.

“So this now has to be the next inflection point. It’s been 20 years now. It’s got to be about how you share proceeds of growth, to use that quite old-fashioned phrase.”

The city’s leadership would insist it has spent the last two decades trying to create and share the wealth, however, pointing out many of the city’s most high profile social issues - particularly homelessness - have reared their head on the back of government-driven austerity policies.


Delegates sing The Red Flag at the Labour Party conference (Image: PA)
Many pre-existing members, wary of Momentum’s rise, feel this battle is not a genuine debate about policy - or what is good for Manchester - at all, but simply an old-fashioned factional power struggle.

“I think Momentum are trying to get in and get onto the council first and then go after MPs,” says one councillor.

“It’s a power trip. They’re starting from the bottom and building up, but for me it does feel like a party within a party.”

One furious long-standing senior member goes further.

“These all-outs have unleashed the worst kind of behaviour,” he says.

“People are trying to prove their power, but this is a long game with Sir Richard in the crosshairs, to force his early retirement or position unions and Momentum for the succession.

“And to deselect Lucy Powell.”


MP de-selections are, of course, the looming fear for many pre-Corbyn Labour members.

Is that on the cards, further down the line?

“We are happy to work with existing councillors and MPs where they are not actively organising against the inclusion of new members in the party structures, or engaged in sabotage against Corbyn nationally,” says one senior Momentum figure, ominously, but adds that it is not ‘committed’ to de-selections and will work on a ‘case by case basis to support local members’.


So battle lines are being drawn, especially in Manchester Central, where the divides run particularly deep following Lucy Powell’s involvement in the 2016 shadow cabinet walk-out.

It would, however, be wrong to suggest a Momentum revolution is about to overthrow the council.

And while Manchester has had a flood of new pro-Corbyn members - particularly in the south of the city - the majority are not in Momentum and do not consider themselves ‘hard left’.

Meanwhile Manchester’s leadership did not get its steely reputation for nothing. It is highly skilled at maintaining control, keeping councillors busy with campaigning commitments, at disciplining internal threats, at seeing off trouble.

But pressure is building to adopt more left-wing policies and more left-wing rhetoric: pressure from Andy Burnham ’s populism, pressure from the out-and-proud Corbynism of next-door Salford , pressure from the creeping gains of Momentum, pressure from the thousands of new members in south Manchester alone.



Here and there, there are already subtle changes. Veteran establishment figures have begun to talk conspicuously nostalgically of their days fighting the good Labour fight during the 1980s. Two framed copies of the Morning Star now grace the walls of the members’ tea room.

But at some point in the not-too-distant future, there will be a full-scale battle to take over from Sir Richard Leese. With no obvious front-runner, Momentum will have that one firmly in the diary.

One councillor also points to Corbyn’s ‘democratic review’ into membership involvement - including the potential for council leadership elections to be thrown out to the grassroots - as one possible future challenge to the status quo.

In the meantime, each faction will continue to decry the other faction’s factionalism. And debate will continue to rage about the council’s housing and regeneration policies in particular.

But one MP watching from a distance believes that is simply a proxy for a much bigger battle to come.

“As far as I can see, this is not a fight over housing, anymore than it was really a Trident fight last summer in the parliamentary Labour party.

“This is a decade-long fight for the soul of the Labour party. This is about who is more Labour than whom. And ultimately there will be fireworks.”

When Richard Leese goes will Manchester boom end with him? Okay a bit of hyperboly but it does not seem the new generation are that interested in gorwing the city as fast as possible and want a more leftist stance. Whatever tha means in practice but it will mean developers won't have it so easy in the city and some councillors might want to win some political points off them. Council housing not luxury housing could be the slogan. Maybe non co operation with Tory government etc. Who knows, maybe the growth cycle is too strong and the blacklash against it will be mild rather than harmful to Manchesters growth.
 
#3,250 ·
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...entum-labour-party-manchester-corbyn-13913626



When Richard Leese goes will Manchester boom end with him? Okay a bit of hyperboly but it does not seem the new generation are that interested in gorwing the city as fast as possible and want a more leftist stance. Whatever tha means in practice but it will mean developers won't have it so easy in the city and some councillors might want to win some political points off them. Council housing not luxury housing could be the slogan. Maybe non co operation with Tory government etc. Who knows, maybe the growth cycle is too strong and the blacklash against it will be mild rather than harmful to Manchesters growth.
Your concerns are absolutely valid. Anyone unhappy with the current leadership should be very very careful what they wish for.
 
#3,251 ·
There was a program about Labour/Momentum (I only caught snippets the other evening).
I'm sure there are a few well meaning members in this movement but it does occasionally come across as cult-ish. I mean the Tories are in absolute disarray (and that's without Brexit) but there seems to be trouble ahead within Labour too. We all know MCC is far from perfect but ultimately they've steered a sinking ship (and it very nearly sunk a couple of decades ago) in much calmer waters with a positive future ahead (and that was with help from various Consecrative governments.
 
#3,253 ·
Got the budget up, infrastructure figures are: £1.7bn half open to bids from cities, half pre allocated per capita, £74 million for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, £243 million for Greater Manchester, £134 million for Liverpool City Region, £80 million for West of England, £250 million for West Midlands and £59 million for Tees Valley.
Theres £45m for potholes.
£84m for in cab signalling, £5m for signalling on the South East and East London Lines and a digital signalling upgrade for Moorgate.
Study on future freight transport in the digital age including platooning trucks.
26-30 railcard
£10m for researching cyber security of 5G networks
£5m for a trial of 5G autonomous road vehicles in the West midlands.
£190m for full fibre broadband being rolled out faster than otherwise commercially available and 100 schools around the country to be given full fibre broadband starting with a trial in the East Midlands
£35m for developing commercial mobile communications for rail passengers equivalent to 5G/Full Fibre including upgrading trackside equipment at Mowbray test track and rolling out on the Transpennine network between Manchester, Leeds and York
£76m for flood defences with £40m ring fenced for deprived communities
Subsidies for green energy will be maintained, not cancelled and replaced with tariffs as planned
Government departments will prioritise offsite construction methods in their capital programmes (pre fab) as well as importing foreign construction techniques as long as its value for money
£337m from National Infrastructure fund for Tyne and Wear rolling stock replacement, city region Devo deal with Tyne agreed in principle
£5m for transferring redcar steel works site to public ownership and preparing land for redevelopment
Continue to explore land value capture methods with Greater Manchester
£4m for museum at Jodrell Bank
New devo talks with Liverpool and Tees valley
£6m for housing taskforce in Midlands and £5m for construction skills
£2m for scheme development and £4m for congestion on the Coventry – Leamington rail corridor
Pilot manufacturing zone in the East Midlands
£5m for Cambridge South station study
£300k for study in to reopening Cowley station
Independent review of Crossrail 2 funding methods
Isles of Scilly 5p fuel subsidy extended till 2023
£98m for bridge in Great Yarmouth
£79m for link road in Cornwall
£12m for funding cost of administering city region mayors
£1bn of infrastructure loans available to local government at rate of gilt +60 basis points for 3 years, corresponding resources will be made available to Wales and Scotland
£4.7m for modernising the factories in Richmond and Edinburgh that manufacture British Legion poppies
£2m for the Department for Culture Media and Sport for developing local cultural development

£2bn Barnett for Scotland, £1.2bn for Wales and £660m for Northern Ireland arising from this budget
North Wales city region talks commenced, will also begin talks for a Belfast one after power sharing restored
funding for Wrexham – Bidston rail journey time improvements business case study
 
#3,254 ·
Manchester has only had one heavyweight political champion in recent times and extraordinarily that was a Tory George Osborne. His influence bought the Chinese leader to the city and in tandem with Bernstein and O'neil used his influence to sell the city's potential to overseas investment. The money has got to come from somewhere and he pushed the right buttons to get it. Power and influence that has created this building boom.
 
#3,257 ·
Thanks for the breakdown, Watcher. Do we have any info on what the GM infrastructure requirements are and if there's a programme to assign this £243m to?

Does anyone know what new powers are coming to GM?
As in newly announced new powers or new powers announced previously? Everything already agreed can be found on the GMCA website https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/homepage/59/devolution

Edit: MarkO and I clearly having the same thought process at the same time. ^^^
 
#3,264 ·
Thanks for the breakdown, Watcher. Do we have any info on what the GM infrastructure requirements are and if there's a programme to assign this £243m to?

As in newly announced new powers or new powers announced previously? Everything already agreed can be found on the GMCA website https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/homepage/59/devolution

Edit: MarkO and I clearly having the same thought process at the same time. ^^^


On the BBC it said new powers for GM I think.
 
#3,269 ·
A second senior Momentum figure muses that the city’s economic policies - which have regularly seen Manchester feted nationally as a northern urban success story, including through its links with the private sector - are now out of date.
Whilst I'm certainly not suggesting that MCC get everything right, the fact that there are a number of these types who truly believe this sort of guff shows just how clueless they are.
 
#3,270 · (Edited)
While I'm not sure I'd agree those policies are out of date yet, I do expect there to be a point quite soon where Manchester City Council needs to focus less on development and investment at any cost, and actually using some of its new found prosperity to deal with the fundamental issues holding the city back. It's all very well to be unquestionably pro-private sector when you desperately need jobs and investment, but for the city of Manchester itself this is becoming less of an issue compared to deprivation, low educational standards, between neighbourhood inequality and poor public services.

The problem is if something has worked in the past people will keep doing it, even if it is no longer the right policy for the future. This is where the council's lack of an opposition is holding the city back, because there's no one to make an alternative case. In a functioning local democracy (i.e. not an obscenely underbounded city) this would come from another party, but given the boundaries we have and in the current political context it is going to have to come from within the Labour Party. The council has limited policy levers to effect change in these areas, but they should start to use those they have to focus on quality of life and public services within the city itself. Growth and investment needs to become more of a city-regional concern, and less of a municipal one.
 
#3,272 ·
I will post this here as it seems relevant.

An extremely erudite response to a very silly Telegraph opinion piece blaming the UK's second tier cities for the UK's productivity problem:

The solution to Britain's productivity problem? Bulldoze our second tier cities

Article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business...tivity-problem-bulldoze-second-tier/#comments
Jeremy Warner

Response:
Brian Harrison 25 Nov 2017 2:25PM

NO, Mr Warner, you are part of the Westminster village, therefore part of the problem, and you are looking down the wrong end of the telescope. The problem is Westminster. It's dysfunctional.

First, the Westminster FPTP 2 party system, far from giving strong government, is inherently unstable when is comes to anything that requires long term constancy of purpose - E.G. infrastructure investment and the organisation of basic services.
Marginal seats are in a minority as are the number of swing voters, so party discipline and the management of the news cycle is necessary for victory. There must be one narrative and little dissent. This gives the extreme, or ideological, wings of the major parties disproportionate influence. These theory-driven hardliners would be separate parties in a multi party system (cf Gert Wilders in Holland or AfD and Die Linke in Germany). In a multi party system the more central parties work with different minor parties in coalitions and there is constancy of purpose on the organisation of basic services and the role of the state. By contrast anything run by Westminster is liable to endless re-organisations and swings - cf the UK's health and educational systems.
Brexit itself, an off the cuff, unplanned for result with complex economic ramifications, is classic Westminster. (Similarly Westminster may, or may not, one day make decisions that drive the Scots to vote for Independence.) This weakness is made worse by struggling newspapers desperate for "stories".

Second the UK's unwritten constitution has resulted in over centralised* government. Prime Ministers are able, for short term party advantage, to make long term radical change. The temptation to suppress alternative power bases is overwhelming - (what would Mrs May now give to deprive George Osborne of his platform at the Evening Standard?). Between them the 2 most successful Westminster politicians of recent times, Mrs Thatcher and Mr Blair**, emasculated local Government. Unable to raise significant taxes or alter tax rates without Westminster's agreement, local government is shackled to whatever theory is currently in vogue at Westminster. Yet, Westminster is incapable*** of having the local knowledge or interest to create, define or lead the kind of projects needed to revitalise a particular town or region. Hence, as one example, the nonsense of HS2 when the rail systems of the North require massive investment. The great Victorian age of infrastructure investment from schools to housing to sewers was local and municipal.
(* As an aside, the more power is concentrated the more corrupted it becomes - cf Westminster's "revolving door")
{** Because of pressure from the EU, Labour under Mr Blair created the regional governments of Scotland & Wales, while doing its best to ensure that they would be mere debating shops for the branch offices of Westminster parties}
(*** The most important thing in the 1974 suppressed McCrone report was not that it said how rich and independent, oil rich Scotland would be (very), but it clearly pointed out that centrally directed regional policies can never work).

Third, the one consistent, accidental and never on the manifesto, policy of all Westminster governments is to increase the concentration of power in the SE of England.
By their nature (cf the maths of connectedness) large successful hubs will always grow. London has a long history as a successful hub, and, in the past, having the government of a global empire in London made sense. Now it is a global financial centre, close to the economic heartlands of Europe. For the UK to have so great a financial centre in the same city as the seat of over centralised government, plus all the media, throttles a medium sized nation state. To continually improve infrastructure in, and connections to, the SE of England puts the hub on steroids.

Fourth, the UK has a great history within living memory, as an Empire and as one of the victors of a global war. An ageing but still numerous generation finds it hard to admit that there is much wrong either with the shape of their democracy, or with their entitled sense of "Britain's" place in the world. Despite decades of steadily accumulating evidence.

Imagine if the UK were a business and outside advice were to be asked? The recommendation would likely be radical structural reform to generate plurality of power, something along the lines of:
1) give Westminster and its flummery over to the tourists,
2) move the HOC to Manchester, elect its MPs with PR,
3) abolish / reform / relocate the unelected 2nd house,
4) Put real governmental tax and legislative powers in the hands of regional and local authorities.

Neither Westminster, its home counties village, the London media nor the rich will do this: radical change comes from the margins.
 
#3,273 ·
I sometimes think, in my uncharitable hours, that England is the British Empire's last colony. I recall some unworldly British policymaker suggesting that England be depopulated. Now this fellow wants to demolish cities--although he presents it more playfully. Politicians themselves are happy to underfund services and refuse to build infrastructure, all the while holding on to power and preventing others from doing better. Benign neglect is the nicest way to describe their attitudes, though imperialist is better.

The British elites go potty over the Falklands but literally* believe that Failsworth is full of unconscionable natives (assuming they've ever heard of it). The British are as much an occupying power in England as they ever were in India or Rhodesia. The few thousand people who actually run England are as alien to me and you as some public schoolboy in a pith helmet was in Africa.

Maybe I'm going a bit too far, but I do really wish that England was a colony, as that would explain so very much about our politics...and how to change it.

*Yes, literally.
 
#3,274 ·
The Westminster political system has its routes in colonisation. That's all it knows, so it operates as if it was a governer of colonies - not as a government of equal regions. Until we strip Westminster right the way back to the foundations and reform it, it's always going to be this way. London and the south east are the masters, we are their subservient empire. Of course they're never going to let us succeed. We either have to leave the country to form our own (unlikely) or fight for change from within. England needs a federal government. Period. I also think parliament should be moved, with Westminster turned into a pretty tourist attraction/museum thing.
 
#3,275 ·
There's a great deal of truth in that, ever since the Normans arrived and divvied everything up amongst themselves.

Being in the EU never appeared to help much either or voting Labour for that matter, hence the present situation we find ourselves in.

I fear federalization won't work without a strong local tax base which many places don't have, a federal England will end up with the rich part wanting to secede like Catalonia.
 
#3,276 ·
Federalisation doesn't work without fiscal transfers anyway, so the tax base is irrelevant in the UK (it's not in Catalonia and Spain as they're both using a foreign currency).
Manchester and all the regions need decentralisation to happen to help create jobs and disperse power into the regions where the majority of people live (i.e. outside of London).
It simultaneously removes some of the pent up demand to relocate to the South East, therefore breaking the virtuous circle of investment in London & the SE - e.g. so many people live and want to live here we need 50% more investment per capita than anywhere else, rinse and repeat ad infinitum.
At the root of this is power, not money - they only have the money because they have the power, because the country lets them get away with it. Vote for political parties that will move government departments, civil service, HoC and HoL out to the regions.
 
#3,278 ·
It's about time Mr Burnham started articulating a vision for this conurbation? As unacceptable as begging is he needs to show more ambition in attracting business and investment and and and......! Hardly hear a thing from his office unlike Mr Street in Brum? What is the point in having him?
 
#3,279 ·
The few times I've seen him speak his sentences nearly always start "This Tory Government..." before bleating on about Theresa May and her government's lastest wrongdoing. Now there's plenty of reasons to hold "This Tory Government" to account but he seems to be acting as a member of the Labour party and HM Official Opposition (I guess somebody has to :lol:) more than representing GM as Mayor.

I'm worried he's using his position as mayor as a platform for Labour and its policies as much as genuinely working for GM. I'm worried his approach will undo what co-operative relationships and trust has been built up by previous GM leadership down in Whitehall and Westminster.
 
#3,280 ·
Exactly. He also seems to have an eye on not upsetting Liverpool and forwarding the North's interests as whole which isn't his job. I don't want someone sounding like a Labour politician (or a Tory politician for that matter) but an ambitious mayor of Manchester solely focused on the city's growth and economic prosperity. I can't quite put my finger on it (maybe it's personal bias) but whenever he speaks it doesn't sound like he realises the scale of growth in Manchester and the international opportunities available to the city. Does he even carry out international visits?

I'm sure he's not looking to stick around for decades the way Bernstein/Leese did. My only hope is that he leaves the private sector well alone to get on with the job and boost the economy.
 
#3,282 · (Edited)
Budget proposals up now, to be consulted on before final budget submission in February. Headline is they are proposing an average Mayoral council tax precept of £7 rising to £10 as more powers are devolved over the next couple of years but slightly reducing the existing Transport Levy by £3.9m to cover mayors office transport priorities, they are refunding to councils the money the councils agreed to fund the Mayorals office startup costs before government announced grant funding for the first two years of CA's.

So far Mayoral Precepts announced are:
London £73.89
Birmingham proposed £10.80 rising to £12 (being resisted but not yet actively blocked by councils)
Liverpool mayor proposed wouldn't implement one till at least 2019/20
Tees Valley similarly proposing no levy
West of England not legally allowed to implement one as creation concession to councils

GMCA will be taking over funding of several AGMA functions including social and cultural spending. They are gradually increasing spending in each year as powers are devolved, Governments agreed that Mayoral Levys will be in flux in 2018/19 and so the referendum requirement on council tax rises over 3% will apply the year after. Because the legislation hasn't been passed yet in regards Mayoral Transport levies and powers the budget proposals in that area are in a state of flux and so things like Bus Franchising preparations will be funded by GMCA rather than Mayors office.

Here are Band D the national band used, though the press release is based on Band B changes (most common band in the county)
£9 initial Mayoral Levy
£68.95 for Fire and Rescue unchanged, absorbed into mayoral levy in future years
£12 increase to Police Precept to £174.30, maximum permissible without a referendum
£11.5m of Business Rates Earnback will be allocated to Bus Reform

Earnback spending set as thus:
Balance of Earnback revenue b/fwd (2,348) (8,221)
Earnback revenue grant (9,000) (12,000)
Trafford Metrolink Capital Financing Costs 3,102 5,326
Cycling and Walking Commissioner 25 25
Bus Reform 0 11,500
Women Against State Pension Increase Concessionary Fares 0 2,000
Closing Revenue Balance (8,221) (1,370)

Earnback capital grant (21,000) (18,000)
SEMMM's A6 MARR 21,000 18,000


Mayors precept budget
Direct Mayoral and Support Costs £732k
Spatial Development Strategy £643k
Cost of Administering Grants to Bus Operators £50k
Transport, Policy and Strategy £3.9m
Other Mayoral priorities £2.27m
Total £7.59m


£15.2m is being put in to reserves of various departments, largest ticket item is £3m fire budget reserve.

Thus from the combined Fire and Mayoral precept spending is:
£101.8m Fire Service
£7.589 Mayoral General Budget
£13m interest payments

In the current year a Fire Service budget underspend of £5.5-£6m is being used to fund 6 months of extra overtime £2.6m and £3.24m to extend by 12 months the period before reduction in pumps (they are centralising in to fewer larger stations and merging with ambulance stations), £0.5m of budget savings achieved from merger with Mayoral office. 25% cuts have been made in spending since 2010 since austerity and they are required to do half again by 2020. Pay award has been set at 2% and bonuses at 1%.

Burnham is trying to mitigate the service cuts by ordering a spending review of the existing cuts plan and providing funding to delay the cuts.

Sources of income
Transport Levy £279.2m
Mayoral General Precept £3.95m
Government Grants £12.5m
Contrib. from earmarked Reserves £21.8m
Other Income £2.9m
Total Resources £320.4m

Transport revenue spending £320m, they've again frozen the planned increase in Transport Fund budget of 1.8% in 2018/19 and 1.6% in 2019/20 reducing the budget by £6m with the shortfall to be covered from savings.
£11.5m will be spent on developing Bus Franchising proposals and consultation
£0.5m has been allocated to further work on devo of stations after government offer of Partnerships instead of direct management
£56m has been spent on GM Spatial Framework and developing next set of transport schemes in recent years (£10.5m last year), request to government to recoup this statutory spending rejected with no transport revenue funds made available (capital funds have been) and £5.5m has been allocated from to continuing this work in 2018/19.
The last 3 year concessionary settlement with the bus operators ended last March and has been renegotiated they want to keep the local concession that women born between October 1953 and November 1954 can have a national concessionary bus pass from April 2018 this is expected to cost £2m rising to £2.8m to offset this they are proposing those women would have to pay a contribution of £12 to receive a bus pass which would raise £1.5m per annum.
Following continuing pressure on the subsidised services budget which has been cut 20% in recent years they are requiring savings be found of £0.2m in Metroshuttle budget and £0.3m in ring and ride, the cost of TFGM travel products will rise with inflation.

There is currently £162m in reserves across the various transport budgets of which 2/3rds is the Capital budget reserve, this amount will fall by £20m during 2018/19 with £94.3m being spent and £74.5m being saved.

Economic Development and Regeneration budget unchanged at £48m
Capital budget is unchanged at £463m next year with the exception of £17m Transforming Cities fund. The £243m transforming Cities fund is currently unallocated with no particular schemes mooted though they have profiled spending in the budget of £17m in 2018/19 £55m the year after and £72m in future years suggesting they have unannounced ideas of what £144m of it would be spent on.
 
#3,283 ·
Mayoral press release blurb

https://www.greatermanchester-ca.gov.uk/news/article/256/mayor_outlines_budget_proposals

Budget spending proposals:
At least 50 new police officers will be recruited for neighbourhood policing
PCSO numbers will be maintained
Faster improvements will be made to the non-emergency 101 service
The fire service budget will be protected and staff shortages addressed
Congestion across Greater Manchester will begin to be addressed, with the transport control room turned into a 24/7 operation
Greater Manchester’s new plan for jobs and homes (known as the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework) will be published later this year, taking in to account residents’ concerns, especially about development on green space

 
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