Devolution deal is ‘on back burner’
THE leader of Lancashire County Council says he believes that the Government has put a potential devolution deal for the area “on the back burner” – because of local wrangles over an associated requirement to reduce the number of local authorities in the county.
Geoff Driver made the comments after Boris Johnson was asked during a visit to Lancashire about the prospect of the county reaching the kind of agreement that has long since brought extra powers and cash to the likes of Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region.
Responding to the question from the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the Prime Minister said that Lancashire is “at the heart of [the Government’s] campaign to drive jobs and growth in the UK” – but did not address devolution directly nor offer any timescales for it.
For the first time last summer, all 15 council leaders in the county concurrently agreed “in principle” to the creation of a combined authority and elected mayor – a pre-requisite of any devolution deal.
They also pledged to explore “possible models” to simplify Lancashire’s complex two-tier council structure, which currently sees local authority responsibilities split between the county and district councils in all areas except those covered by the standalone authorities in Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen.
The Government has indicated that it would demand such a change so that any future combined authority would have a more manageable number of constituent members.
However, consensus over the need to consider reorganisation soon began to fracture when leaders were confronted with the reality of redrawing the local authority map in Lancashire – leading to competing proposals being put on the table and calls to decouple the process from moves towards devolution.
When the Government announced which areas it would enter into discussions with as part of the next round of devolution talks, Lancashire was not on the list – prompting County Cllr Driver to warn that the region risked being left with “crumbs from the rich man’s table”.
Speaking after Mr Johnson’s comments, the County Hall leader – who is stepping down at the local elections in May – said: “From what I can gather, devolution for Lancashire is on the back burner, because the government has ‘no appetite for getting involved in local disagreements’.
“It has been made very clear that they will not impose a solution from Westminster and will look to seek ‘general agreement’ – even if not unanimous – for a local solution.”
Lancashire County Council put forward a pitch to the Government last September that would have led to the abolition of every local authority in the county and the creation of three new ones. The proposal was part of an outline business case for devolution that the authority claimed would enable Lancashire to speak with “one single, credible voice”.
The document suggested that local authority functions be delivered by single councils for “Central Lancashire” (based on the footprints of the existing Preston, Chorley, South Ribble and West Lancashire authorities), “North West Lancashire” (Blackpool, Fylde, Wyre, Lancaster and Ribble Valley councils) and “East Pennine Lancashire” (Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Rossendale, Hyndburn and Pendle councils).
The move sparked disquiet from several district councils which complained that they had not been consulted.