A big read from me: How England’s growing army of mayors are being deployed in the drive for growth (featuring a fair few unanswered questions) on.ft.com/3Vk4tAd - ThreadSky

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social • 93 days ago

A big read from me:

How England’s growing army of mayors are being deployed in the drive for growth (featuring a fair few unanswered questions)

https://on.ft.com/3Vk4tAd

Comments

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

Great piece. It’s politics, rather than lack of in house capability, that make local strategies look similar (from the time RDAs were asked to identify their priorities). Also worth remembering that EU funds allowed places like GM a degree of financial independence from Whitehall.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

Thankyou. Yes although I take the point about capability. Many of the conversations I’ve been having very much point to a lack of it. Mayors talk a good game but you need the thinking capability to come up with a credible plan

simonparker.bsky.social•93 days ago

If I understand the situation correctly, the fact that MCAs are essentially collections of central government programme spend means there isn't usually much money for corporate overhead (ie policy) beyond what's inherited from existing councils.

simonparker.bsky.social•93 days ago

This hasn't stopped the MCAs finding ways to building corporate capacity, but it probably is holding at least some of them back from creating the high quality strategy functions they need to wean themselves off the consultancies.

simonparker.bsky.social•93 days ago

That said... politics is definitely a barrier here as well... if they had the strategic thinking would the LAs let them use it effectively? I suspect one reason the consultancies clean up is that they're seen as neutral.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

I agree. Leese and Bernstein took the strategic decision years ago to maintain capability which has paid off in shaping the agenda since 2010. Others start much further back. My point was just that capability is a necessary but not sufficient condition for developing a strategy....

andrewcities.bsky.social•93 days ago

I agree with this view, which I hear along.
Big Q is WHY did they make that decision? And related Q, why did other places not make the same decision?

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

Without being flippant, because there is no-one in local government with SHB's vision or his creative use of funding sources. For example, EU funds came with a big slug of "technical assistance", Manchester integrated the different streams of business support, and AGMA members owned the airport

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

...nor is it something that hasn't been recognised. Hezza spotted it, hence the recommendation in No Stone Unturned to second civil servants to help places develop their economic plans. Always seemed sensible to me: help build capacity and improve Whitehall's knowledge of the regions.

phillowthian.bsky.social•93 days ago

This point about building the Whitehall/Local relationship and mutual understanding is absolutely critical, especially when strategy moves to delivery. phase.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

You and I have been round this course a few times. Reminds me of Michael Parkinson’s (the academic rather than the chat show host) line “everything’s been said, but not everyone has said it yet”. Politicians (and officials) relearning old lessons.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

I do also think there’s an “emperor has no clothes” danger with this stuff unless we’re honest about existing weaknesses. And there are definitely weaknesses.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

💯 SHB’s pitch to ministers that things could be devolved to GM because it had a strategy (MEIR), governance structures (from AGMA through to GMCA) and a track record of delivery (rebuilding after the bomb, CG 2002 etc). Can’t be replicated overnight (look at Liverpool).

simonparker.bsky.social•93 days ago

And New Economy Manchester, an economic policymaking capacity headed up by a former denizen of No 10 who knew HMT inside out.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•93 days ago

Indeed, although the institutional infrastructure was already in place.

lomelindi12.bsky.social•93 days ago

Not imo

suegenevanana.bsky.social•93 days ago

Or, are they the catalyst for Freeports and SEZ?

paggles.bsky.social•93 days ago

just what I was wondering....

maxnathan.bsky.social•93 days ago

Excellent piece. Genuine question: if we went looking for a Mayoral growth effect in the data, would we find it *already*? Or do you think we need to come back in eg 10 years, when they have more powers and/or time?

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

So there are people who would argue that you can already see it in Greater Manchester’s productivity data. I’m not an economist but personally I’m a bit cautious about that: how do you show cause and effect? I suspect you can’t disentangle it in GM from the many steps taken to get that far.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

And in other areas, it feels a little soon

maxnathan.bsky.social•93 days ago

Thanks that’s really helpful!

Agree you’d need more-than-usually fancy methods for this. @whatworksgrowth.bsky.social wrote something useful recently.

bryank1.bsky.social•93 days ago

Local government has been comprehensively broken by the Tories, at this point I think regional government with more devolution is the only realistic way of fixing this.

hoverfrog.bsky.social•93 days ago

I firmly believe that the government should be as close to the governed as possible and I fear that devolving power to regional mayors rather than increasing powers for borough or district councils is a mistake. Not as big a mistake as keeping power in Westminster but a missed opportunity anyway.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

Capacity and resource is key among them, because in reality this is a new generation of institution building; a bit like lots of regional development agencies, in old money. New mayoralties don’t yet have the delivery capabilities; more mature ones are now losing capability to elsewhere

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

On £ more broadly, mayors want their own fiscal levers rather than having to keep asking Whitehall (although the “single pots” planned should alleviate some of that frustration). But what fiscal levers? There’s a reason they keep coming back to tourism tax - looks and sounds politically cost free

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

But does central govt want to say yes to a tourism tax? Politically, after *that* budget and all these tax rows, you can see why they might not. Most of the mayors currently seem frustrated that it hasn’t been embraced by HMT

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

What else? Well government strategy currently all feels a bit chicken and egg, because everything is contingent on everything else. The noises about the contents of a forthcoming devo white paper (possibly this week, timings seem a bit up in the air) are a little unenthusiastic, but…

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

…the devo white paper has to live alongside the industrial strategy (not yet a thing), skills strategy (tbc), house building/Homes England policy (tbc), pension reforms (tbc)…and most importantly the spending review

path-dependent.bsky.social•93 days ago

Feels like I've spent much of the last five years waiting for devolution white papers.

jenwilliamsft.bsky.social•93 days ago

More than one person has said to me that the devo white paper feels like something the last govt might have come up with rather than a great leap. But equally it depends on where you’re sitting: some places are starting from much further back than others

netherschot.bsky.social•93 days ago

Interesting question and a thorough piece but my simple take is No. There's a huge democratic deficit when these mayors represent national parties and garner slim majorities on turnouts around 25%. At best they represent good will and sound party policy. At worst, they're tokens.

obikirk.bsky.social•93 days ago

Enjoyed this one, good assessment of the current state of play.

The comments section was depressingly predictable.

singfoodie.bsky.social•93 days ago

@davidskaith.bsky.social has his head screwed on and heart in the right place, which is always good. @kimmcguinness.bsky.social is a political northern woman which, in itself, is also good. She is also an excellent singer! (Don't know about David's secret talents!)

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