Alexandra Jones comments on today's Communities and Local Government Committee report on devolution in England.
Centre for Cities welcomes the recommendation of today’s Communities and Local Government (CLG) Select Committee Report to pursue major fiscal devolution to cities and city regions so that they can drive economic growth in the years ahead.
Centre for Cities research and analysis has long supported giving those city regions with strong governance arrangements more powers to influence, set and retain revenue streams like business rates, stamp duty and council tax locally. Gaining this kind of control over locally generated sources of revenue is likely to be vital as cities seek to support growth while continuing to deal with reductions in their budgets in the years ahead.
Coming hot on the heels of a series of commitments from each of the main political parties to devolve more power to cities and city regions, today’s report from the CLG Select Committee highlights a set of clear and practical steps that whoever leads the next Government should implement, in order to move beyond existing policy frameworks, and truly end the culture of “Whitehall knows best”.