Mayors told: Try to win more power
ENGLAND’S six new regional mayors are being urged to unite and fight for more powers from London.
Leading think tank IPPR North said ‘metro-mayors,’ including the mayor for Tees Valley, should work together to become “a powerful voice for England”.
But County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland will not be included.
Instead, voters went to the polls yesterday to elect mayors for Greater Manchester, the Liverpool City region, the West Midlands, Tees Valley, the West of England and Cambridge and Peterborough. They will represent almost 20 million people between them, and results of the elections will be announced today.
It follows the collapse last year of talks between local councils and the Government about the creation of a North East mayor.
Hexham Conservative MP Guy Opperman, a supporter of metromayors, said: “The tragedy is that four local authorities south of the Tyne have failed to progress this, and I am very sorry we are not going to be included. But ultimately they will be the ones to regret this. Why would we not want to work together to take control of issues such as skills which are essential to our region?”
IPPR North says that the new mayors should work with London mayor Sadiq Khan and call for sweeping new powers over education, health and employment.
And it claims that these mayors can be vital players in ‘Team GB’ post-Brexit, attracting investment and forging trade links.
Ed Cox, director of IPPR North, said: “We’ve heard a lot about strong and stable leadership in this election, and we need this sort of leadership locally too, to drive inward investment and deliver great public services.
“Using ‘soft powers,’ the new metro-mayors can act as advocates for their city-regions on the global stage, helping win investment. But while these soft powers are important, to really compete, mayors need the kind of fiscal powers enjoyed by American mayors.”
Plans for a mayor to chair the North East Combined Authority were scrapped last year when the leaders of Gateshead, Sunderland, Durham and South Tyneside Councils voted not to go ahead unless they received more reassurances over funding in the post-EU era.