Devolution: It’s all to play
JUST hours after he joined Chancellor Rishi Sunak at the signing of West Yorkshire’s historic devolution deal, Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government Simon Clarke was in Kirklees.
As a guest of the University of Huddersfield, he toured the 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, which received almost £3m from the Government’s Local Growth Fund, and met senior staff.
Among them was Vice Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan, who said devolution presented huge opportunities for northern entrepreneurs as well as responsibility and accountability over the county’s future.
Professor Cryan added: “That’s a good thing for the north [and] represents a wonderful opportunity for the whole of the region.
“As far as Kirklees is concerned, we have to make sure that we are proactive and make the most of what devolution offers.
“It’s all to play for.”
The Local Democracy Reporting Service sat down with Mr Clarke to discuss the past, present and future aspects of devolution.
Do you agree with a comment made at a meeting in the town hall earlier this week by the Leader of Kirklees Council, Shabir Pandor, that devolution is about giving local authorities more powers, not taking them away?
Devolution is absolutely about central government empowering the regions to take decisions that will allow them to make their own best strategic choices.
Shabir is right: this is not about the area as a whole losing powers. It is obviously about the councils giving some powers to the mayor, which will enable him or her to act in due course to act across the whole of West
Yorkshire in a way which is more strategic, and that’s the plan that underlies this: you’re giving a strong figure who is accountable the power to act across a broad geography and to bring in better decision-making.
But no powers are leaving the area as a whole. It’s just about where they sit within the system. What this is about is trying to ensure that the maximum power lies closest to West Yorkshire.
It’s been described as ‘a statement of intent’. It could be argued that £1.8bn over 30 years is a some statement. How will that manifest itself in the short-term?
That in part will obviously be for the mayor to determine but some of the most tangible benefits that this will lead to [are] £101m for flood defence schemes and £25m for heritage [such as] the Temple Works in Leeds and British Library North.
We’ve got major ambitions around transport. Bradford Station is getting funding for their masterplan. There’s a Leeds mass transit system for the first time, which will have very significant pay-off into Kirklees. The message I wanted to send by coming here to Huddersfield is that in no way is this a Leeds-centric deal. Yes,
Leeds is the city that people think of from the outside looking in but West Yorkshire is far more than one city.
It is absolutely about making sure that when it comes to housing and transport and skills - all the things that are absolutely vital to making somewhere a good place to live and work – that we get this right. Coming here and seeing the Buckley Centre is a very good reminder of the immense economic strengths and potential of Kirklees as an authority area.
It’s been an eye-opener for me to see the extent to which things are already motoring here.
The story of these talks dates back to 2016. I would pay tribute to everyone involved [such as] the leaders and their Conservative counterparts who have been very constructive in helping to get this through but also all the officials at all of the different authorities who have worked hard, because it is a complex thing.
It is never without its sensitivities. We have now got a deal that is, economically, the most significant of any that we have yet done as a Government. It’s the largest gainshare of any region.