William Nichols is regional director at Lanpro
Labour’s long-awaited devolution plans have been published in the English Devolution White Paper Power and partnership: Foundations for growth: proposals that seek to ‘put England’s regions centre stage and deliver on the government’s mission to grow the economy’ and build 1.5 million homes in the current Parliament. The government has already approved several devolution deals and it aims to create ‘strategic authorities’ across England to ‘give our cities and regions a bigger voice’.
These are much needed and belated attempts to address the unequal devolution that has occurred across the United Kingdom while standardising local government across England, but they fall a long way short of giving the English regions the same powers as devolved administrations in Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. Indeed, these proposals are more akin to a decentralisation of functions and responsibilities rather than full devolution in the truest sense of the word.
That said the proposals are not without merit: they herald for the first time in 14 years the return of some form of strategic planning, albeit not quite on the wider geographical regional scale of the Regional (Spatial) Strategies that the last Labour government introduced. The elimination of any form of regional planning outside London had been widely criticised by planning professionals and its return will be welcomed in the industry.
There are also some positive signs for transport with indications that the government is serious about replicating the success of London’s transport system (widely regarded as among the best in the world) elsewhere in the country. The White Paper cites the significant progress that has been made, such as the introduction of the integrated Bee Network in Greater Manchester, and the ‘Liverpool City Region taking back control of [its] buses’ as well as having a fully integrated rail network of its own, and the government aims to build on these success stories.
Under the proposals, mayors will work with the newly created nationalised rail body Great British Railways and, ‘Be given a statutory role in governing, managing, planning and developing the rail network’, which will enable a much more joined-up public transport network and pay-as-you-go tickets. How this works in practice remains to be seen and it will be important to see how network improvements work to ensure smaller towns and cities, and rural areas see similar benefits.
Another key change will be the creation of Strategic Authorities with populations of a minimum of 1.5 million, together with the abolition of the remaining two-tier authorities which still exist across much of the country, by creating new unitary authorities of around 500,000 population. The government’s rationale for the creation of much larger authorities is that they will simplify local government and lead to efficiencies, but for residents used to smaller authorities, the new councils may feel quite remote.
The White Paper states that all Strategic Authorities will be required to prepare a Spatial Development Strategy (SDS). Local authorities will retain control over detailed policy and site allocations as is currently the case, but local plans will need to be in broad conformity with SDSs. This is a significant and welcome change that should lead to better strategic planning considering wider factors and enabling a more joined-up approach. Furthermore, the government has explicitly stated that these proposals should not delay local planning.
Whilst this approach is a broadly welcome step forward for devolution, giving the opportunity for greater strategic planning and decision making across many areas that are currently without a mayoral authority, the challenge will be achieving this while ensuring local democracy and decision making remains accessible and relevant to the local communities it represents.
