City Deals ‘Core Package’

The introduction of City Deals presents cities across the UK with a real opportunity to take greater control of policies that influence the growth of their economies. The Deals are bespoke arrangements designed to devolve power and responsibility to the city level on the basis of ‘licensed exceptions’ which respond to individual city circumstances.

A key feature of bids from the Core Cities was the breadth of policies that they covered. Each city specialised in a distinctive policy area, but a number of cities identified similar issues as barriers to economic growth. In response to this the Government has proposed two elements to the next wave of City Deals: a bespoke element, reflecting specific city needs, backed up with a ‘Core Package’ of powers that will be offered to every city in recognition of the common challenges that most cities face when trying to support economic growth.