Mayors demand more powers from next PM
MAYORS leading England’s regions have joined forces to urge the next Prime Minister gives them a range of new powers, including the ability to set air passenger duty and impose a hotel tax.
Andy Street, Tory mayor of the West Midlands, joined Labour colleagues including Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham and Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotherham, as well as London mayor Sadiq Khan, to call for “greater fiscal freedoms, control over the services we deliver and decisions on future investments.”
They have written joint letters to the two candidates in the Conservative leadership contest, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt, setting out 20 demands.
The mayors want “appropriate tax raising powers, which could include road tax, airport passenger duty and tourism taxes”. This would include a hotel tax of the type Birmingham currently plans to help pay for he 2022 Commonwealth Games in the city, charging guests an extra £1 per night.
Other proposals include the creation of a new Government Department for the English Regions, led by a Cabinet minister, and a Metro Mayors committee, chaired by the Prime Minister.
The mayors want the Government to transfer day-today responsibility for affordable housing, school performance, skills and employment programmes to combined authorities.
And they are asking for
“more capital funding for transport, skills and housing to be devolved from Government departments”.
Those signing the letter also include Tim Bowles, Mayor of the West of England; Jamie Driscoll, Mayor of North of Tyne, which includes Newcastle; Dan Jarvis, Mayor of Sheffield City region, and James Palmer, Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
The mayors said that the Government should stop thinking of the UK as England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but instead consider “huge populations such as Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North of Tyne, Sheffield City Region, Tees Valley, the West Midlands the West of England.”
The result of the Conservative leadership contest will be announced on Tuesday and the winner is expected to become Prime Minister on Wednesday, after Theresa May meets the Queen to resign officially.
The letter follows a major report published earlier this month by Lord Heseltine, the former Deputy Prime Minster, in which he warned that progress on devolution had “stalled”, partly because the Government is overwhelmed by Brexit.
Lord Heseltine set out a 20 recommendations to empower English regions, which the mayors are asking the next Prime Minister to carry out in full.
The proposals include a new Department for the English Regions should be established with a powerful Secretary of State, Permanent Secretary and functioning civil service.