Matt Colledge: Give power to cities and see money pour in

At the heart of this debate is a mantra that I passionately support: by transferring powers and funding from Whitehall to the control of cities the touch paper of economic growth and public sector reform will be lit – and our country will be more prosperous as a result.

In Manchester, at a city level, the political leaders of all parties work together towards economic growth through devolution. As a former (Conservative) council leader of Trafford and a vice chairman of the country’s first combined authority (GMCA) in Greater Manchester, I have been privileged to see the process in action and am proud of the real and tangible outcomes we delivered for our people, investing in infrastructure, providing skills training and supporting local businesses to create new jobs.

Roger Marsh, the LEP chair for Leeds City Region, and James Newman – his counterpart in Sheffield City Region – have both delivered hugely successful bids for Regional Growth Funds that will create jobs and position Yorkshire to give my colleagues in Greater Manchester some friendly competition when overseas businesses are looking for where to locate and invest.

Our great cities, during the industrial revolution, were originally made great precisely because the city forefathers had the tools to stimulate growth and drive reform, something distinctly lacking today.

So where are we now? There has been an encouraging start. George Osborne and Greg Clark have brought forward important ideas around devolution and the City Deals and Strategic Economic Plan funding is a welcome start.

At the launch of the One North report Sir Richard Leese – the leader of Manchester City Council – observed that Northern cities have assumed greater control of their destinies during four years of coalition government than in 13 years of Labour rule.

But Labour is not asleep at the wheel and we have a race to the top emerging.

Ed Miliband and Lord Adonis were in Leeds in July to launch their vision for devolution which would see £30bn of funding passed to city leaders. Ed Balls has said Labour will deliver more devolution of power to our cities and our county regions, more devolution of housing spending, job spend, skills and business support.

The drive for devolution to stimulate growth must not be seen as just a thing for big cities but also must create a way for important centres like Barnsley or Wakefield to benefit. Doncaster has spent a year and a half building a business case under the old regimes.

Once it had a Growth Fund award and devolved powers, it was able to do a deal to get the project away in 12 weeks. 

The project itself is worth £56m, but it unlocks £1bn of long- term growth for the economy of the Sheffield City Region. It is the ability of local leaders like Jo Miller, chief executive of Doncaster Council, to do better deals quicker that is the proof point for those who may wonder whether devolution of powers will really help drive growth. But as is often found in politics the rhetoric is easier than delivery and the culture change demanded by true devolution.

If we are not to fudge the devolution issue, it will mean fundamentally challenging some of the accepted norms around how we operate as a country.

We cannot fall in to the trap of centralising a decentralist proposition. While politicians appear eager to devolve power, the machinery of state behind them will be more wary and will seek controls. The mistake would be for mandarins to insist upon a one size fits all package, riddled with thousands of regulations and controls, that areas are told they must take or leave.

Some areas will be more 
ready than others to take the leap.

The willingness, vision and capability of areas to deliver and be accountable for devolution will vary and it isn’t always confined to the city boundaries. There are many areas that have a functional economic coherence, be it around a particular industry or natural resource that could be ripe for driving growth if given the opportunity.

Wherever the devolution debate goes now, one thing is for sure: the genie is out of the 
bottle.

Let’s make sure that our civic leaders and key business figures truly maximise the opportunity of major economic growth and public sector reform by challenging Westminster and Whitehall to drive through a flexible, properly decentralised and geographically comprehensive plan for devolution across the UK.

It is devolution to Yorkshire, and not Scotland, that should be exciting us now.

• Matt Colledge is Cities Director at Westbourne Communications. He is a former leader of Trafford Council.