Labour’s growing ambition for regions
Party looks to local leaders to power up their economies
LABOUR is set to “give the keys” to its biggest economic pledge to metro mayors, as it announces mandatory plans for combined authorities to grow their economies.
Today the party will announce further details of its devolution policy which include statutory duty on existing authorities to set out plans to grow the economy.
These will feed into Labour’s national mission to secure the highest sustained growth in the G7.
The party will also ask local areas not covered by a devolution deal to join together into a combined or county authority in order to receive new powers.
These powers over transport, skills, housing, planning, employment support and energy will also come alongside long-term funding settlements for authorities able to show they can effectively manage public money.
West and South Yorkshire have mayoralties which are set to be contested in
May’s local elections, alongside North Yorkshire, which will elect its first mayor. The Hull and East Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority is expected to be contested in next year’s elections.
Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Angela Rayner, inset, Labour’s Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, said the transfer of powers would mean central government will help guide local leaders rather than enforce how their economies should be run.
“It’s like giving them a racing car, giving them the keys but having an expert passenger who can say ‘this is how we can help you do it’ rather than someone nagging you from behind saying ‘this is how you’re meant to do it’,” she said.
This builds on the party's previous commitment to build on “economic clusters” such as health and financial technology in West Yorkshire and advanced manufacturing around Sheffield.
It is expected that powers will be devolved from central government in order to unblock local issues which are a barrier to growing these sectors.
Ms Rayner said that skills shortages will be filled through Technical Excellence Colleges, where local leaders and businesses are able to identify which skills employers need before funding the courses to be filled locally.
She added that this would allow for more people to stay and work in their local areas, rather than moving away from their families to find well-paid quality jobs.
New powers over housing, with mandatory local plans for housing, would see mayors take a leading role in planning, making sure that there is a “first dibs” approach for local people who may be priced out of their area, the Labour frontbencher said.
Later today, Sir Keir Starmer will launch Labour’s local election campaign, promising a “full-fat” approach to devolution.
He is due to say: “I was hoping we’d be launching a different election campaign here today. But unfortunately the Prime Minister has bottled it. He wants one last drawn-out summer with his beloved helicopter. And so, we’re going to have to use these local elections to send him another message and show his party – once again – that their time is up.
“The dithering must stop, the date must be set, because Britain wants change, and it’s time for change with Labour.”
Meanwhile, South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard is understood to have written to Home Secretary James Cleverly expressing concern over the agreed transfer of policing powers from the region’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).
It follows a Court of Appeal ruling that stopped the same powers being transferred to West Midlands Mayor Andy Street. A judge ruled that the Home Office had not sufficiently consulted during the process.
Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby.
Before Andrew Vine penned his article (Yorkshire Post, March 19) had he laced his morning coffee with a large tot of brandy, for normally his weekly column is full of common sense? To claim Labour is a creditable government in waiting is stretching fantasy to the extreme. Only months away from a general election and apart from a proposal to tax private education out of existence, nothing else of any consequence is on offer from Labour.