Tailored devolution would bring tangible benefits to cities and improve the quality of local governance

Zach Wilcox writes on the LSE Politics and Policy blog about our new Breaking Boundaries report.

Press release published on 24 April 2014

Imagine if every city in the country was its own distinct state, with border controls and identity checks at every council boundary. Then consider where you live, where you work, shop, or play sports; you might be crossing unfriendly boundaries simply to run an errand. In fact, for almost half of people who work in UK cities, they’d be going through several checkpoints every day.

Thankfully, city boundaries aren’t hard to cross and our lives frequently play out across them. Yet, the services those cities provide – roads, public transport, health and education – often stop sharp at the borders many of us don’t see.

If life is not confined to political borders, then neither should the services we use be confined. In its latest report Breaking Boundaries, supported by CapitaCentre for Cities shows that working across these borders would not only save precious public money, but it would help councils do more to support growing and prosperous places.

Read the rest of the article on the LSE Politics and Policy blog.