Will urban issues feature prominently in the election manifestos the next time the country heads to the polls? Here’s what we learned during the last two weeks.
We went into Party conference season 2023 with several questions. How are Conservatives aiming to shore up their credibility around Levelling Up? Has Labour found clear dividing lines between it and the incumbent Government? And will urban issues feature prominently in the election manifestos the next time the country heads to the polls? Here’s what we learned during the last two weeks.
As Centre for Cities prepared to launch its 2023 Party Conference programme, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak announced a new ‘Long-Term Plan for Towns’, connecting towns to his plans for national economic growth and increased prosperity.
The policy includes £1.1 billion of investment for 55 ‘overlooked’ towns across the country, to be spent on measures such as regeneration, community safety and transport improvements aimed at boosting local economies. Under the plans, towns will be required to set up a ‘Town Board’ to develop plans, and a new ‘Towns Taskforce’ in the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will be established to support the development of these plans.
This announcement represented a sudden resurrection of ‘cities vs towns’ rhetoric, but it remains to be seen whether this thinking is backed up by policy or goes on to influence broader election strategy.
Given that recent Centre for Cities research has shown that pitching towns against cities is in fact detrimental to towns, it came as a relief to hear Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury Gareth Davies acknowledge the relationship between cities and towns during our ‘Welcome to Manchester reception’, just hours after the Prime Minister’s statement.
Thinking about cities and towns in isolation ignores this relationship: improving the performance of large cities is a key part of supporting towns as the benefits of strong city economies ‘trickle out’ to their surrounding towns. Any strategy to improve the prosperity of towns will need to harness this effect, because small local economies cannot succeed on their own.
Throughout Conservative Party Conference, discussion at the fringes was dominated by media reports all but confirming the cancellation of the northern leg of HS2 to Manchester.
Both Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and West Midlands Mayor Andy Street spoke at Centre for Cities’ fringe events directly after the decision to cancel the project was first reported by ITV. The Metro Mayors were livid at the way in which the announcement was made without their consultation, and particularly at hearing of the decision for the first time via media leaks.
What does this all mean for levelling up? Effective devolution of powers to city-regions still has a long way to go if Metro Mayors are not around the table when major decisions are made. But, in terms of transport connectivity, there are several other important things that Government needs to focus on such as connecting places within and around the UK’s biggest cities.
The Government announced a new Network North, saying it would divert the £36 billion earmarked for HS2 in the North to a range of other projects to benefit road and rail users up and down the country. However, even some of the projects included in this announcement were later scaled down or described as ‘illustrative’.
The way in which the final HS2 announcement was made has damaged city leaders’ trust. It caps a long saga of Government indecision over investment in other northern transport projects, such as Northern Powerhouse Rail which was scaled back to meet fiscal constraints during the pandemic. What is clear is that better connectivity is a priority for city leaders, and they will keep fighting for it at Metro Mayoral elections next May.
Whilst the topic of HS2 lingered at Labour conference, early indications by the Labour frontbench shifted the focus onto housebuilding and planning reform, creating an opportune political dividing line between Labour and Conservatives.
There is considerable interest in boosting housebuilding – through planning reforms or other means – across political divides. Centre for Cities’ housing fringes at both conferences took place in packed rooms.
Nobody believes the planning system is fit for purpose. The current discretionary planning system poses several barriers to housebuilding and empowers local objectors to new developments. There is widespread consensus that planning reform is inevitable and will take us towards a more certain, rules-based system similar to that in other European countries.
But there is a major mismatch in how senior frontbenchers talk about planning. The Secretary of State for Levelling Up has ruled out building on the Green Belt – despite this being heavily implied by his housebuilding proposals for Cambridge – and the Prime Minister made no comment on housing at all in his conference speech.
Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Angela Rayner and Labour leader Keir Starmer provided a welcome contrast, announcing a wide range of housebuilding packages that seem to be feasible under existing legislation and possibly within the first 100 days of any future Labour Government. They are serious about a big, permanent increase in housebuilding and want it not only to tackle the housing crisis and improve affordability but also to benefit the economy by unlocking more construction jobs and investment, and boosting incomes.
Also important was the recognition among the Labour frontbench that some people will be dissatisfied with the increase in housebuilding in their local area. It shows they recognise they will need to push through decisions that don’t please people in some places in order to unlock new opportunities for the country as a whole. This perhaps reflects calculations about which seats it can target at the next election.
Centre for Cities heard reflections from a huge number of speakers, including six of England’s Metro Mayors. Three themes emerged as consistent.
First, taking a place-based approach over a party-political approach was a priority for all Mayors, with the most important part of their role being to champion their region. This place-based approach has been seen with the willingness of Metro Mayors to push forward with cross-party collaboration to deliver on their mandates. We’ve seen this in action with the announcement of the recent Trailblazer Deals for Combined Authorities in the Conservative’s West Midlands and Labour’s Greater Manchester, developed in collaboration with the Conservative Government in Westminster.
Second, as the Metro Mayor model matures in the political system, the voices of individual Mayors continue to be amplified as key political players. But what came through in our discussions was that the Metro Mayors are now also strengthening their collective voice, enabled by forums such as the M10. However, this growing influence needs to be put into perspective as, in practice, the Mayors were neither consulted on the HS2 decision nor were their views taken on board.
Third, what stood out in our discussions with the Metro Mayors, compared to those with national politicians, was how the discussions went well beyond the rhetorical. They wanted to get into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of what they are doing to improve their respective places, and emphasised that demonstrating delivery using the powers they have been given is the way to cement their place in the political scene.
MPs now return to Parliament to debate the King’s Speech on 7 November and hear the Chancellor deliver the Autumn Statement later in the month. It will be interesting to see the extent to which local and devolved issues feature in both.
All the while, Metro Mayors will be getting on with the day-to-day business that makes their job so interesting, be it bus franchising in Liverpool or the devolution of skills provision in Manchester.
There is much more to come in the next 12 months. Nine Metro Mayoral are up for re-election next May including three regions will go to the polls in Metro Mayoral elections for the first time. If the recent past is any guide, plenty will change between now and then.
Andrew Carter is joined by Paul Swinney, Ant Breach and Jess Tulasiewicz to share observations from 2023’s party conference season.
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