Mayor: Don’t ignore the regions in recovery plan
WEST Midlands Mayor Andy Street is pressing Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ensure the regions are part of the Covid-19 recovery plans – but is not demanding a seat at high level Cobra meetings.
Regional mayors in the north of England have been pushing for a place on Cobra, the inner circle of advisors and ministers who meet regularly with the Health Secretary and the Prime Minister to consider the Covid emergency and decide what needs to happen next.
But Mr Street has a different take – he says there are other ways to have influence and a seat on Cobra was not ‘expected.’
He told The Post: “I did not expect a seat at the Cobra table at the beginning. But as this builds towards regional recovery, I would hope to be invited to contribute (to those discussions). That does not need to be through Cobra,” he added, indicating a group focussed on recovery would likely be separate to Cobra.
“We do not need to go through Cobra, we do have other ways through direct access to ministers.”
He said he will ‘hope to be invited’ to join whatever decision making body is coordinated to look at economic recovery from a national and regional perspective.
He also said the ‘R’ rate issue that had triggered concerns about regional differences had been confusing.
He says a single agreed R rate formula should be published weekly, at least giving a reliable picture of infection rates at regional – and ideally local authority – level.
Concerns about a disconnect between national decisions and the regions and local authorities have been raised throughout the crisis. Birmingham City Council and the city’s MPs have fired off a series of letters to ministers through the crisis, expressing frustration over failures around test and trace, the reopening of schools, food parcels for the shielded, free school meals vouchers, homeless funding, and PPE.
Most recently, they raised concerns about a lack of access to information and data around Test and Trace, the Government’s flagship project to track down any infection outbreaks; while Sandwell’s public health director Dr Lisa McNally and other colleagues nationally have urged the PM to put the brakes on lockdown easing.
Mr Street said the measures taken so far were “slow and steady” – but relied on people following the guidance.
“What is important is that we are cautious... in my judgement, the guidance is clear – it’s absolutely critical that people follow the advice.”
The Mayor has previously told The Post that he thought it had been a mistake when the Government decided to pull the plug on a fledgling testing scheme in mid March.
As the NHS caseload began to rise and the virus took hold, the community testing programme introduced as
We do not need to go through Cobra, we do have other ways through direct access to ministers
part of the containment phase was suspended – and that was a “regret”, he said.
During the crisis, Mr Street has chaired a regional taskforce looking at how the region can survive and thrive through Covid-19, and is now working towards an economic recovery as lockdown restrictions ease. The taskforce set out its ten priorities last month which were sent to ministers.
People from different households will be allowed to get within two metres of each other for the first time this weekend since the coronavirus lockdown began, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced.
Mr Johnson said: “From this weekend we will allow single adult households – adults living alone or single parents with children under 18 – to form a support bubble with one other household, meaning they can spend time together inside each other’s homes and do not need to stay two metres apart.”