Core Cities have cause for celebration
Sam Schofield
Earlier in December, the Deputy Prime Minister launched City Deals - an offer to the eight Core Cities and their Local Enterprise Partnerships to negotiate wholesale devolution of functions such as skills and training, transport, and flexibility over the level of business rates.
The Core Cities have been campaigning on this for well over a decade. But despite warm words from government over many years, nothing really changed.
So why might this time be any different and is it good news for business? There are a few reasons to suggest that this latest attempt at devolution has a better hope of translating into reality than its predecessors:
Firstly, the Treasury is desperate for anything that might kick-start growth. When similar suggestions were made by Prescott we had consistent and rapid growth across the country. There was little incentive for the all-powerful Treasury to change anything. This time round, any scheme that holds out the promise of growth will be seized on across government.
Secondly, the proposals are being made relatively early on in the parliament (not just before an election) and in a coalition government where a significant element believes in less power for Whitehall. With the last government, it all too often seemed to be the pre-occupation of Prescott and a few of his friends but ignored or derided by both Blair and Brown.
Thirdly, the new head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake is also the top mandarin at the Department for Communities & Local Government and a former Core Cities council chief executive (for Sheffield). At civil service level, where in reality these schemes can often flounder, the benefits of letting go are more keenly felt than ever before.
What extra does all this give to the development community? Well, flexibility over business rates would be a key gain, allowing an authority to sacrifice some income in return for a concerted push at a particular sector. Greater flexibility over training would also make it easier for developers to push the public sector to train people in the skills they really need in each area. More flexibility over capital budgets might also make big transport schemes easier to get off the ground.
Most significantly of all, knowing that a local authority or a Local Enterprise Partnership has the means to make business easier within its patch, should it choose to do so, will help developers target their investments to those Core Cities which grasp the nettle of devolution and actively seek to attract inward investment.
Sam Schofield is director of PPS North
