Keir Starmer won the Labour leadership on Saturday, but understandably his full focus like that of country is on overcoming the Coronavirus pandemic. But, once this crisis has passed and some semblance of normality has returned, the new Labour leader has the task of reshaping the party, its understanding, approach and structures. A change in how it views cities and towns is vital, and the deep recession this crisis is likely to leave us with makes that even more important.
This blog will look at three ways in which Starmer needs to break with Labour’s policy on cities, large towns and metro mayors under Jeremy Corbyn and show a clear understanding of how:
How exactly and how well Starmer can deliver on the 10 pledges set out during his leadership campaign, at the core of which is winning power in Westminster, will rely on a clear conception of the distinct role cities, large towns and now metro mayors play in national life. This will require a change in direction from the past five years.
Cities and the economy
While Jeremy Corbyn seemed to prefer a ‘flat’ economy where more or less everywhere is the same, Starmer needs to get to grips with the ‘spiky’ nature of the economy and look to create more spikes, not flatten the ones we have.
The national economy clusters in the country’s largest cities and towns – they account for 9 per cent of land but 63 per cent of output – because of the benefits they offer, namely access to lots of workers and access to other similar businesses.
But the major problem for the UK economy, and the principal explainer of the UK’s poor productivity, is the underperformance of many of its biggest cities in the North and Midlands. Manchester, Glasgow and Birmingham are smaller and less productive than their European counterparts. This costs the national economy billions of pounds of lost output per year, and affects the many millions of workers that live in and around these cities.
It affects surrounding towns too, with previous research by Centre for Cities showing the importance of a strongly performing neighbouring city to the fortunes of a town.
To deal with inequality between different parts of the country, the new Labour leader needs to set out his vision on how to address the underperformance of our biggest cities. Some ideas are here.
Further south, to deal with inequalities within cities, he needs to set out how he will radically increase house building. The undersupply of housing means that it is landlords, as much as workers, that benefit from the growth of successful city economies.
Cities and politics
Jeremy Corbyn was ambivalent at best towards metro mayors, denying them a platform at Labour Party conference or an official position within the party. The 2019 Labour manifesto mentioned them only in reference to clipping their wings and giving power back to councillors and creating new regional bodies. Starmer must also break with Corbyn here to embrace metro mayors, not only to recognise governance that best matches the scale over which people live and work, but also the potential they have to help him politically.
The Conservatives have shown how this can work. In the 2017 metro mayoral elections, despite taking place in what might have been safe Labour territory, Labour candidates lost to Conservatives in Tees Valley, West Midlands and the West of England. They are relatively new but metro mayors are already far more widely recognised than longstanding local government leaders they work with. The Conservatives gained high-profile advocates in places with plenty of marginal seats, and photo opportunities for ministers. Politically, Ben Houchen and Andy Street have been effective foot-soldiers for three years, demonstrating a different kind of interventionist Conservative leadership to voters.
The next metro mayoral elections are in May 2021, covering around 20 million people. We expect that eight will be held on the same day in London, Greater Manchester, West Midlands, West Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West of England and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. A key electoral test, Starmer needs to set out how to win these mayoralties, and then how he will work with Labour metro mayors who have the power to deliver his national pledges locally – such as publicly-run buses, rail, water or power, or improving air quality and reducing carbon emissions – ahead of the next General Election.
To do this, Starmer needs to make clear the role of cities and metro mayors in the Labour party structures. This requires change. During the leadership race, Andy Burnham and Steve Rotheram felt forced to write a letter asking to be heard. It is encouraging that Starmer called Cllr Nick Forbes, the leader of Newcastle City Council, within hours of victory for a briefing on the challenges local government is facing over coronavirus, in contrast to the colder shoulder local government got under Corbyn.
Cities and the environment
A lack of interest in cities under Corbyn meant that their role in cutting carbon emissions was not grasped, despite cities like London and Nottingham and authorities such as Hackney doing so much of what the Labour manifesto called for to reduce carbon. Starmer must embrace the potential that cities have to deliver on his pledge of ‘climate justice’. This is important for national politicians politically and practically when trying to reduce the two big carbon emitters – cars and boilers.
President Macron and the gilets jaunes in France showed how national policies that make polluters pay equally can end up making politicians pay. Drivers in rural areas are more likely to face a cut to their income from higher fuel duties due to a lack of alternatives to driving, while drivers in cities can switch to other modes. This is true in the UK too. The cities where car emissions are likely to have the greatest potential for reduction with the minimum resistance of drivers (and the greatest benefit to poorer bus users paying high fares and stuck in congestion, and residents breathing polluted air) are here.
On heating, urban areas are more amenable to district heating, while the pressure to build more housing and lack of land offers a chance to convert low density and low energy efficiency housing in cities into higher density, higher energy efficiency housing. Some ideas for how Starmer could support cities’ transformation of their housing stock to help people, the economy and the planet are here.
Understanding this unique potential of cities to tackle climate change offers Starmer the chance to turn an abstract pledge on climate justice into reality while delivering on his pledges to social and economic justice too.
Keir Starmer has plenty of time to flesh out his vision for the country. That must include a vision for its largest cities and towns – and metro mayors – too.
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