How have attitudes to metro mayors shifted in response to the Chancellor's speech on city devolution yesterday?
Yesterday the Chancellor fired the starting gun in the race for cities to join Manchester in getting substantial devolution deals in this Parliament, but only under a directly elected metro mayor. Here’s a run through of initial reactions from across the English Core Cities, along with a sense of whether the political structures are in place to allow the Treasury to enter into negotiations.
Leaders in West Yorkshire and Liverpool City Region have both responded to the speech by opening up room for a debate on metro mayors that would allow them to start talking to the Chancellor, and potentially take him up on his offer. Cllr David Green, leader of Bradford, said that the ‘world changed on Thursday’, and long-time metro mayor opponent, Cllr Peter Box of Wakefield, plans to ‘consult the local people, businesses and stakeholders of West Yorkshire and York on the governance options that could unlock extra powers and resources from Whitehall.’
In Liverpool City Region, where Mayor Joe Anderson has been an advocate of a metro mayor since the Combined Authority’s inception, his fellow leaders have now said that while they may personally oppose a metro mayor deal, they would be willing to put any deal to a referendum. Cllr Phil Davies, leader of Wirral Council and the Liverpool City Region said that he was “very uncomfortable with the six of us [council leaders] sitting in a room saying we will just make that change” and that the people of the region should have the final decision.
In Bristol, while directly elected Mayor George Ferguson tweeted that “We should be next in line. Depends whether we’re able to convince Govt that we’re a cohesive city region. Advantage having #mayor!”, he is undoubtedly correct when he accepts that the Treasury won’t even begin discussions on new powers until Bristol and its neighbours form a Combined Authority. While Mayor Ferguson is dead-set on the idea of a mayor, the regional structures aren’t in place to allow any negotiations to start.
John Mothersole, chief executive of Sheffield City Council has over the past few months been careful to say that the region never took a formal decision to oppose a metro mayor. Sheffield, he says, is “open-minded… Nothing is ruled out, nothing is ruled in.” With the structures in place, Sheffield City Region is ready to move forward with negotiations if it so wishes.
In Newcastle, council leader Nick Forbes said that “great potential and opportunities here… could be stifled if [the Chancellor] rigidly insists on a directly elected mayoral model” and he was in agreement with Cllr Paul Watson of Sunderland and Cllr Simon Henig of County Durham who questioned the viability of a mayor to govern “an area from Newton Aycliffe to Berwick, which must be about 100 miles”.
But while the geography may prove too difficult to make work as it currently stands and the Newcastle leader sees drawbacks to the mayoral model, he did open the door slightly to the Chancellor’s proposals when he told the LGC that “we have made it clear in the North East we are open to exploring a range of options. The Greater Manchester model is one I know we will look at and explore whether it would be right for us.”
Leaders in the Midlands have been less friendly to the Chancellor’s offer and without city-region bodies in place, wouldn’t yet be in a position to move forward even if some of them did come round to the idea.
According to the Birmingham Post, none of the proposed West Midlands Combined Authority’s leaders are ready or willing to consider a metro mayor. Solihull, which is not yet signed up to the group, has heard its leader, Cllr Bob Sleigh, say that “we have a strong economy and growth plans in Solihull and the issue for us is, if we get into a Midland Powerhouse, what can we achieve as an authority which we can’t already?”
Up and across the Midlands, Nottingham deputy leader Cllr Graham Chapman said last year that there was a consensus that the region, in talks to form a combined authority between the city and county, was opposed to a metro mayor. In Birmingham and Nottingham, business leaders have now decided to come out publicly in support of a metro mayor devolution deal.
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Ian Raymond
Ahem… Phil Davies is leader of Wirral Council, not Halton Council!
Centre Cities
Many thanks for spotting this, Ian and apologies for getting that wrong. This has been changed.