Devolved government: Can we create an oasis in the North?

Kurt Allman
Prof Kurt Allman

The Scottish Referendum on independence marked a significant milestone in the United Kingdom’s Union journey. Just pulling back from the brink of a brave new world, Scotland decided that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts.

Whilst the outcome was, personally speaking, contrary to what I had anticipated, the process shone a spotlight on what many south of the border but north of Watford had been contemplating: The current command and control of central government was not sufficiently democratic nor insightful to address the pressing needs of England’s regions and cities – calling for devolved government.

What was apparent after the Scottish referendum, and all the public soul searching on the arguments of economic security and political ideology was that this would ignite discussion and debate over the next few years across the UK. In this forthcoming debate I hoped that the arguments wouldn’t be so polarised as presented on the main media outlets on the run up to the independence referendum, but rather much finer grained discourse based on carefully calculated benefits and risks associated with devolved powers.

Devolved government: unleashing market growth

City Growth Commission- unleashing market growth

Image reproduced with kind permission from Soapbox London

One such recent contribution to the debate is a recent report by the City Growth Commission; Unleashing Metro Growth. The report highlights the increasing challenges for England’s city regions. It does not argue for a top-down blanket policy of devolution, but a process through which the UK’s major metros can benefit from new powers and flexibilities that match their capability and ambition.

The report also articulates the challenges of creating new governance – ensuring appropriate and necessary checks and balances to prevent, through mismanagement, a Detroitellian urban politic road to self-destruction. However, standing back from what is a carefully crafted assessment of the status quo and how future growth is limited by current orthodoxy of Central Government is the challenge of creating new systems and governance against a backdrop of increasing cuts in public spending.

How can we respond to regional challenges?

Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media, Olympics and Sport, (left) with session chair Steve Hewlett at the Nations & Regions Media Conference at the BBC Philharmonic Studio at MediaCityUK on 12 March 2012.

Image: University of Salford press office.

As a nation, we are 45% of the way through the nation’s austerity programme – but the low hanging fruit of austerity have been plucked. This in classical economic terms would support the argument for increasing centralisation to improve efficiency at the expense of devolved powers and regional management.

But equally a valid philosophical, or indeed economic, position may be that in the age of public funding austerity it is even more important for regional government to respond to regional challenges. However, I am conscious that this backdrop may unleash a public theatre of debate and tension with new regional statesmen and those of the incumbent government which will be unproductive.

Can history teach us anything about devolved government?

Old Fire Station, Salford

Image: Old Fire Station, University of Salford press office

History shows us that some regions, dating back to the 11th Century, had palatine powers in order that they could effectively govern given the challenges of, in the main, marauding forces: The County or Duchy Palatines lasted for almost 500 years in some cases and were only really dispelled into the Victorian era. These palatine counties illustrate parallels with the challenges that we face today – the raising of taxes to support activities of the realm that were often unconnected to the regions’ that raised them – the then price of loyalty of the monarch.

More recently though we have seen the opposite position of some cities in the US, which prior to the recent economic crisis were held as models for potential reform in the UK. We have witnessed the equal challenges of managing cities where tax bases could not cover the spending they had committed to, and which the majority of voters continued to demand regardless of the ability to pay. Therefore, both the past and present offer challenges which suggest a more contingent approach, which admittedly is outlined within the Commission’s report.

Who can benefit from devolved government?

Train Manchester Picadilly (CC) by Kieran Lamb

Waiting at Manchester Picadilly (CC) by Kieran Lamb

This will therefore mean those city regions which have good governance, shared visions, modest disparity, robust accountability, and economic success will benefit from the opportunities offered by devolved powers, and those that fail will have more to lose than what the current status quo fails to deliver. The stakes have therefore never been higher – there will be winners and losers as a result of more devolved powers. The report brings much needed clarity to the debate, and states that

“at the outset, only London, Manchester, and West Yorkshire may be ready to manage these risks. But this is a fast developing process, and others – such as the North East – may be ready soon”.

Being typically Mancunian, I would argue that for economic success from devolved powers and a rebalancing or scaling of growth

‘You gotta roll with it’

but

‘You gotta take your time’.

What do you think? Share you thoughts below!


Comments

  • How are you going to fund devolved government without central government money? London & SE tax receipts fund the rest of the UK!

  • For economic growth, we need LESS government & LOWER taxes. Business rates are killing high streets. Yes the internet is major competition, but in some places, shop business rates are 3x rent! Small independent retailers cannot survive & nobody takes their place. Business rates are an obstruction to growth for small businesses (I own one).

    Yes, local decision making is far, far better than central government, but government in all its forms seems to have lost the plot from where I sit.

    Taxes are higher than ever, but local authorities are turning off street lights at night to save money! This is madness.

    City councils are not repairing roads, not renewing white lines (yes it is dangerous), yet want to charge motorists £30 for putting two wheels in a bus lane for 10 metres! Wonderful.

    Sorry, but I’ve had enough of government in most of its forms.

  • Thank you Alistair.

    Proportional tax spending could be a doubled edged sword consequence of devolution, particularly in a period of austerity. The challenge is maximising the sweeteners that devolution will inevitably bring but sustaining that when we are “on our own”. More detailed analysis of regional tax capacity and resilience needs to be undertaken undoubtedly. However, devolution will result in more governance and not less, personally speaking I don’t mind this so long as it is effective and produces long-term regional benefits.

    Lights on or off, as you have observed, may seem to be a symptom [not
    withstanding any environmental argument] of a currently precarious fiscal
    position but these will undoubtedly increase nationally as ‘we’ attempt to find
    the high hanging fruit of structural deficit reduction. Regardless of political
    leanings or personal grievances with Local Authority policy which may focus the mind on near or even mid-term decision making, this debate is one of economic security over the long-term – 10 to 25 years.

    The questions we need to ask ourselves are how shall we prosper in an intensely competitive global world and how do we secure resources regionally over and above over regions with a finite, if not, dwindling financial resource. There appears to be a limited number of effective policy interventions to address these questions (or problems), of which devolution will only form part of the answer (or solution), it will not be the panacea for sustained economic growth.