Should there be an elected mayor to wield power in the East Midlands?
CAN THE REGION BE STRONGER TOGETHER, OR WOULD IDEA ERODE LOCAL DEMOCRACY?
LAST autumn all the talk was of devolution for the East Midlands and the impending White Paper on the subject – and local councils in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire had started to talk of their individual counties each coming under a single authority.
The chat was also about whether the region should have an elected mayor to give the East Midlands additional kudos and theoretically enable Government funding to be channelled to local businesses through them.
A regional devolution deal for the East Midlands could create a combined authority representing each of the counties, under a new directly elected mayor, who would potentially have control over strategic planning, transport and the emergency services.
But once it was known that the expected White Paper on Devolution and Local Recovery had disappeared off the agenda for the foreseeable future, the whole discussion appears to have dried up – not least over whether the area should have an elected mayor.
Whether the Government specifically had cold feet on the mayoral issue or devolution for the East Midlands, or both, generally is open to question but both are clearly deeply interwoven.
But what is certain is that this is clearly not the right time for local councils and the Government to be seen to be spending huge amounts of time and money on reorganising local government when the cost of the pandemic is still totting up.
And as it is for the Government to obtain parliamentary approval for any such devolution, then it is not something that can take place unilaterally, even if all the authorities in the East Midlands wanted it to happen – and that remains a moot point.
But despite this, while there are many MPs and councillors who have ignored our requests for a comment on this subject, some are still willing to pass comment on the possibility of one day having an East Midlands elected mayor.
Last September
Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicester, declared an interest in standing for election as the first mayor of the East Midlands if the opportunity arose.
He claimed a triple interest through being an MP for part of Leicestershire, attending the University of Nottingham and going to school in Derbyshire.
But is that enough? In reality, the prospect of an elected mayor raises the fundamental question of who would be prominent and respected enough across the region to take on the mantle?
Bearing in mind, each county would potentially have to lose its existing structure of parish and district coucils to achieve a unitary authority that would then be representative at regional level in a combined authority – for a single effective mayor to rise from those ashes is no easy task.
And to pile an elected mayor onto the existing structure would only add to the existing confusion that for many people local government has become. Other questions such as where would an East Midlands mayor be based? A decision fraught with difficulties no doubt.
How much will it cost and how much staffing would the role need to support it? Disband smaller district councils and maybe funding ceases to be a problem?
And how does an East Midlands mayor reconcile the rural interests of the Peak District with the industrial heartlands of the counties?
Ben Bradley Conservative MP for Mansfield is a keen supporter of the idea of an elected mayor, which he thinks would boost the East Midlands, but realises getting agreement across all counties could be a giant step.
He said: “I very much support the idea of an East Midlands mayor, which I think could give us funding and local powers to be able to deliver more.
“The difference in investment and what’s happening between East and West Midlands for example, is very obvious. They have one clear figurehead and one set of priorities, we do not.
“However, any moves in that direction have, to my knowledge, to be built on local government reform to rationalise our councils. We don’t want to just add another layer to 27-odd different councils across three tiers.
“It would need us to make changes within counties to simplify things. That’s proven very difficult and so I’m not convinced that the devolved mayoralty is on the cards currently.”
Derby North Conservative MP Amanda Solloway, like all MPs will do, wants to make sure her home city and county do well in any devolution or mayoral changes that could take place.
She said: “The possibility of an elected mayor for East Midlands has been on the agenda for a while now and we’ll find out more on the Government’s devolution plans when the White Paper is published later this year.
“In my view, the key to any decision on the matter will be ensuring that Derby continues to have a strong voice and has a prominent part to play in levelling up and that Derby’s best interests are well represented.
“I’m pleased that our proud city’s tremendous potential was recognised in last week’s Budget, particularly through the granting of freeport status and it is good to see our area having an important part to play in our national recovery.”
Indeed, the announcement in the recent Budget that a freeport, where normal tax and customs rules do not apply and imports can enter with simplified customs documentation and without paying tariffs, is to be set up in the region and based around East Midlands Airport, was a clear sign that trade is high on the Government’s economic recovery to-do list post-Covid.
Alex Norris
Alex Norris, Labour MP for Nottingham North, believes in devolved powers to boost the East Midlands economy but is unsure an elected mayor is the solution. He said: “The East Midlands gets the least investment from this Government of any region. We have offered to them a series of schemes like HS2 and the Midlands Rail Hub that badly need national funding.
“As part of this there are conversations about devolving certain powers from Government to our community. This has worked effectively elsewhere and I would strongly support it in our region.
“We don’t have to have a mayor in order to get these new powers but it is likely the Government will impose one as part of the deal.
“Ultimately it’s the resources and powers our area needs, the mayor is very much secondary to this.”
Councillor Kay Cutts, Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, is against a directlyelected mayor for the East Midlands but has come up with an alternative solution.
She said: “It has always seemed to me to be nothing more than another layer of local government, of course requiring a new secretariat to man
I think it could give us funding and local powers to be able to deliver more.
Ben Bradley
age the role, all of which is wasteful.
“I don’t believe we should burden council tax payers with any more government. It is much like the previous invention of the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPS), whose role appears to be doling out public money without any democratic accountability, a role which democratically-elected councillors are perfectly capable of fulfilling.
“In order to concentrate on services and capital investment, unitary county councils would be the ideal solution, with the leaders of those democratically-elected unitary councils coming together to form the basis of regional government, receiving properly devolved funds and services from central government without all the continuous meddling we have seen for decades from Westminster.”
Ms Cutts is conscious that introducing unitary councils would mean the disappearance of district councils.
She said: “It is now perfectly possible to hold meetings online without excessive travel, and a high level of local representation and accountability can be achieved at a county level.
“Therefore, I think the borough and district councils no longer have any useful role. Many councillors are ‘dualhatted’ and sit on both their district council and county council, meaning they effectively make one decision in one place supported by one secretariat, only then to make a different decision in a different place with another secretariat, all of which is paid for by the overburdened taxpayer.
“The work that Nottinghamshire County Council has done demonstrates that we can save approximately £27 million a year by doing away with the bureaucracy of the two-tier system and spending that money instead on services.”
Derby City Council says it awaits the White Paper “with interest”.
A city council spokesman said: “We are interested in any proposed options for the three city unitary authorities in Derby, Nottingham and Leicester as well as the county authorities in the East Midlands.
“The devolution strategy, once completed, could create a combined authority under a newly elected mayor. Any such arrangement would need to allow for the interests of Derby, as the beating heart of manufacturing in the East Midlands, to be fully represented in the region.
“As part of a levelling up agenda, opportunities for further devolution of powers and funding to local areas are largely welcomed by Derby City Council.
“It is well known and increasingly recognised that the East Midlands as a region has been neglected for years in term of government investment.
“We continue to work on both our view on what the right governance model might look like and our thoughts on the appointment of a newly elected mayor. We would expect to see Derby playing a key role in strategic proposals on the appropriate number of larger unitary authorities within the East Midlands in the future.”
A date for the White Paper is still to be announced and it is entirely possible that the Government appetite for devolution may have dwindled by then with local government reforms substantially scaled back, which could also hinge on local election outcomes on May 6.
Just a few combined authorities have been set up since Labour introduced them in 2009, such as Greater Manchester, Tees Valley and North of Tyne, with just seven elected mayors, and an eighth in West Yorkshire to be decided in the local elections on May 6.
Some areas, including Cumbria, Greater Lincolnshire and Somerset, have already submitted plans to the government to create combined authorities and mayors but these are now pending.
I don’t believe we should burden council tax payers with any more government.
Kay Cutts