‘Don’t leave us behind on devolution’ - cities

In a joint letter, the leaders of Sheffield and Leeds councils along with those of other major cities have also argued that devolution should go beyond reorganising the way Westminster works and the possible creation of an English Parliament.

The major Westminster parties promised a package of measures to strengthen the Scottish Parliament during the independence referendum campaign as part of efforts to bolster the ‘no’ vote.

But the cross-party consensus has broken down in the aftermath of the decision to reject Scottish independence.

The Conservatives want questions over whether Scottish MPs should vote on English-only matters to be addressed at the same time as further devolution to Holyrood while the Liberal Democrats have said the two issues should not be linked.

Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for a ‘constitutional convention’.

In their letter to William Hague in his capacity as First Secretary of State, the leaders of the largest English cities along with Cardiff and Glasgow, say: “A programme of devolution for Scotland has been set out, but our national agenda for devolution is simply not radical enough.

“The devolution we need has to be at the level of the city and even the neighbourhood. Any legislation must make provision for the whole of the UK, and specifically for its cities – Core Cities, but other places too. Although the timing should not restrict the promises to Scotland being delivered, we would like to see this within the same time frame for the whole of the UK.

“Our communities, our voters, will not accept delays based on constitutional wrangles, or half measures delivered through political compromise. They want and deserve action and leadership on this agenda across all three main parties.”

The letter welcomes the Prime Minister’s commitment following the independence referendum to “empower our great cities”.

It says: “People clearly want more local freedom from central constraint, wherever they live. And to get better results for the economy and public services, devolution has to be to cities.

“Devolution cannot just be to national parliaments, replacing a centralised Government in Westminster with one in Scotland, Wales or indeed England. An English parliament alone is not the answer.”

There is hope among those that campaign for devolution of powers from Westminster that the Scottish referendum campaign has strengthened their hand.

Even before the independence vote reached its climax, the leaders of all the major parties had spoken positively about putting power in local hands.

Labour has set out plans to treble the amount of public money devolved to local areas through the Government’s Local Growth Fund and also to hand over control of business rate revenue.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will set out proposals in November at the climax of his Northern Futures initiative which has asked for ideas from across the North on how to grow the economy.

And Chancellor George Osborne has promised to offer a “major transfer of powers and budgets to cities in the north” as part of his autumn statement in December.

Council leaders from the region are set to meet him next month.