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What do people in cities think of their mayors?

Jonn Elledge reflects on the findings of Centre for Cities' new polling to gauge current public perceptions on metro mayors and devolution.

Blog post published on 9 April 2021 by Jonn Elledge

For fans of English devolution policy, these are exciting times. Greater London is about to hold its sixth mayoral election; half a dozen other regions are soon to hold their second; and the long neglected West Yorkshire about to choose its very first mayor.

But have those “metro mayors”, which offer strategic leadership for entire regions rather than heading individual councils, actually made an impact? Do voters think they’ve done a good job, or have enough power to do one? Do they even, indeed, know they exist?

Centre For Cities recently commissioned Savanta ComRes to find out. Between 26 February and 16 March, the pollster interviewed 3,524 people in seven areas with metro mayors, and West Yorkshire, which is about to get one, then weighted them to give a representative read out of opinion in each region. Here’s what we learned from the results.

Most people are aware of their mayors

Nearly three quarters (74%) of people surveyed – that is, a strong majority in most of the eight areas covered – were aware that their region had an elected mayor.

Curiously, in Greater London – which has had an elected mayor for 20 years now – a smaller percentage of residents (81%) seemed to be aware of the mayor than in the Tees Valley (82%), Liverpool City Region (84%) or Greater Manchester (87%). At the other end of scale, only 70% of West Midlanders were aware of their mayor, and only 66% of people in West of England.

The only region where fewer than half of residents were aware of the mayor was West Yorkshire (44%, compared to 50% not aware) – which can probably be attributed to the fact they haven’t been elected yet. At any rate: the fact most people are aware of their mayor feels like a good start.

However…

Quite a lot of people don’t know who their mayor is

A majority of people in Greater London (60%) and Greater Manchester (63%) could correctly name their mayor, highlighting the strong brands of, and enthusiastic press coverage for, Sadiq Khan and Andy Burnham.

But the numbers were strikingly lower in the other regions. Only 7% of residents of the West of England could name Tim Bowles as the region’s mayor, compared to 14% who gave the wrong name – often that of Marvin Rees, the mayor of the region’s biggest city, Bristol. In the City of Liverpool, meanwhile, residents were more likely to name Joe Anderson, the former mayor of city council, than Steve Rotheram, the mayor of the wider city region, made up of the city plus five outer boroughs. It was the only region where residents were more likely to give the wrong answer than the right one.

All of which suggests that giving multiple posts, covering overlapping geographies, the title “mayor” might just lead to confusion.

Incidentally, only 4% of West Yorkshire residents were able to name any of the candidates standing in May. This may not bode well for turnout .

Health is up, transport down

The survey also asked about which policy areas should be local priorities, and looked at how the answers had changed since previous year. The results clearly showed the impact of the pandemic, with demands that local politicians focus on health, education and inward investment all up. By contrast, transport had fallen down the priority list. In most areas, so – perhaps more surprisingly, given the last year’s increase in time spent at home – has housing.

However, housing did still rank as a top three priority, after health and schools, in Cambridgeshire, London and Manchester – two regions with very expensive housing, and a third where the mayor has made homelessness a priority.

The other regions also ranked health and schools in two of the top three slots, but made different choices for the third. In the Liverpool City Region, West of England and West Yorkshire, social care provision completed the top three slots (in the former it actually ranked above schools). In the West Midlands, emergency services came in third; in Tees Valley’s business support and inward investment.

Only in Greater London (23%) did more than 20% of votes cite transport as a top three priority.

People still want to take back control

Finally, the survey asked which areas in which people wanted to see their mayors receive greater power. It found strong support for greater control across the piece, but the same two policy areas vying for the top two spots almost everywhere.

Affordable housing was cited as a key priority everywhere except the West Midlands and West of England. Meanwhile, greater control over business support was cited a priority by over 40% of respondents in every region: the strongest support was found in the Tees Valley, where mayor Ben Houchen has made it a focus, and which, named by 55% of respondents, topped the poll.

With about eight in ten people on average across the cities supporting more devolution in some form, it’s clear that most voters want their mayor to have more power. Perhaps if they had that power, they’d be more likely to remember their name.

Jonn Elledge is freelance journalist.

This blog is published as part of an occasional series by guest experts to provide a platform for new ideas in urban policy. While they do not always reflect our views, we consider them an important contribution to the debate.