Looks very much like ministers want to use the lure of MCAs to drive local government reorganisation. Which was always Hezza's aim (and no one ever described him as believing in building devolution from the ground up) cc @swannphil.bsky.social www.room151.co.uk/governance/r... - ThreadSky

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oldtrotter.bsky.social • 101 days ago

Looks very much like ministers want to use the lure of MCAs to drive local government reorganisation. Which was always Hezza's aim (and no one ever described him as believing in building devolution from the ground up) cc @swannphil.bsky.social
https://www.room151.co.uk/governance/reshaping-local-power-the-governments-vision-for-devolution/

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oldtrotter.bsky.social•101 days ago

And another take on the same area https://medium.com/@QuestionFy/writing-the-future-of-combined-authorities-1b2f388f4fb6

planningtransport.co.uk•101 days ago

Mergers and abolishing tiers but never what is the right scale for these powers or what are the functional geographies?

oldtrotter.bsky.social•101 days ago

Sounds like we need a new ….. Redcliffe Maud. Ministers need to be clear what they think local government is for before engaging in another round of ad hoc restructuring. Moving government further away from people seems an odd way to respond to people feeling a loss of control.

swannphil.bsky.social•101 days ago

And so the incremental, fragmented (and frequently flawed) reorganisation of English local authorities continues….and without the reform of its finances which should be an integral part of the process. Creating the conditions for sustained centralism.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•101 days ago

It’s profoundly depressing. No apparent strategic vision for local government, save for acting as a delivery arm of Whitehall.

swannphil.bsky.social•101 days ago

George Goschen said the same in the nineteenth century: “a chaos of rates, a chaos of areas, and a chaos of functions”. No political kudos in tackling it.

oldtrotter.bsky.social•101 days ago

Therein lies the problem. At least Wilson tried. Pity he lost the 1970 election.

swannphil.bsky.social•101 days ago

Yes. One of the 12 politicians I’m looking at for my PhD is Richard Crossman.

nigeldriffield.bsky.social•101 days ago

At the moment we have a catch 22 - no agency so no interesting jobs, no not much delivered so no agency

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