Time to get the region moving

WHEN Nick Clegg arrived in Leeds last month to unveil plans for the devolution of major powers to “core” cities across the UK, he was unequivocal about the scale of what he was offering.

There would be “a bonfire of Whitehall controls,” the Deputy Prime Minister promised, as he called on cities to be “as radical as possible” when demanding new powers over spending and infrastructure development.

The type of proposals we publish today, from the Leeds City Region, will put his commitment to the test.

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Handing local authority leaders a 10-year funding pot for all major transport schemes will be a clear demonstration that the coalition is serious about the “localism” agenda which Ministers have been so keen to pay lip service to since coming to power in 2010.

It would also offer the region a chance of finally delivering some large-scale investment in infrastructure.

A 10-year funding pot would give local transport chiefs the certainty they need to leverage investment, and to formulate the sort of long-term strategy which has so glaringly been missing from the Department for Transport over recent times.

Just as importantly, key decisions would be in the hands of people who understand intimately the needs of this region – and who care passionately about meeting them.

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Nonetheless, serious concerns remain. On the most basic level, 10 years is a very long time in politics – and in economics. Council leaders will come and go. Yet a coherent strategy will need to be maintained. And who can say how Britain’s economic landscape will look another decade down the line?

Furthermore, there remains a lack of clarity over to whom these powers will be devolved. And if it is to be city regions rather than councils, to whom exactly will these bodies be accountable?

There are issues, too, over what will happen when local authority leaders inevitably disagree over how transport funds are to be spent.

But the biggest question remains the commitment of Whitehall to this agenda.

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If Mr Clegg can finally prise key powers such as long-term transport funding away from his civil servants, he will be achieving what countless governments before him have tried and failed to deliver. We can only wish him every success.