Memorandum by the Mayor of London (Greater
London Authority) (RG 14)
SUMMARY
1. Citywide government in London has proved
to be a success and the Government has recognised this by publishing
proposals for additional powers and responsibilities for the Greater
London Authority (GLA). Following the failure of the referendum
for directly elected regional government in the North East, the
future for further devolution in England should focus on applying
some of the lessons from London's success—namely providing
additional powers to the city-regions outside of London.
THE POTENTIAL
FOR INCREASING
THE ACCOUNTABILITY
OF DECISION-MAKING
AT THE
REGIONAL AND
SUB-REGIONAL
LEVEL, AND
THE NEED
TO SIMPLIFY
EXISTING ARRANGEMENTS
2. In London, accountability for decision-making
at a citywide level is already firmly established. The Mayoral
system, together with an elected assembly with scrutiny powers
and publicly accountable functional bodies to manage transport
(Transport for London) and economic development (the London Development
Agency) are serving London well. The specific accountability arrangements—beyond
the fundamental one of facing the London electorate every four
years—include:
— I appear before the London Assembly
10 times a year to answer Assembly Members' questions;
— the Mayor's London Plan—London's
Spatial Development Strategy—was approved by the Secretary
of State, and adopted in 2004, after an extensive public review
process and its implementation is monitored by the Assembly's
Planning Committee;
— the annual budget-setting process
is conducted in public, involving three principal stages in the
December to February period;
— Transport for London (chaired by
myself) holds its board meetings in public;
— a series of public events are held
on a regular basis, including the six monthly People's Question
Time and the annual State of London Debate.
3. The current arrangements in London are
broadly working and therefore are not in need of any fundamental
overhaul. As part of the ODPM's current Review of GLA Powers exercise,
I am pressing for some adjustments in certain areas of governance,
eg a one stage rather than two stage consultation process on my
draft strategies and a reform of the arrangements for GLA staff
appointments so that I, rather than the Assembly, appoint the
GLA staff undertaking work for the Mayoralty. This is partly about
simplification and partly about accountability.
4. Both in London, which has devolution
at a citywide level, and the rest of England, where local decision-making
takes place at council level, there are too many national targets
and performance frameworks that fail to reflect local priorities
and needs. For example, the Learning and Skills Councils in London
have been tasked by the DfES to concentrate on Level 2 standard
training for 16-18 year olds. However the needs of the capital
are more complex—by 2010 46% of jobs in London are likely
to require higher-level skills (Level 4 or above), markedly up
from the current level of 38%. Existing targeting arrangements
are far too rigid and fail to address London's specific needs.
5. Accountabilities arrangements would therefore
be improved and simplified if there were less intervention and
dictat from central government. Later in this submission I describe
the benefits which would accrue from the development of city-regions
in England along the lines of the London model.
THE POTENTIAL
FOR DEVOLUTION
OF POWERS
FROM REGIONAL
TO LOCAL
LEVEL
6. My strong belief is that powers should
be exercised at the most appropriate level of government, on the
principle of subsidiarity—ie that power and responsibility
should rest at the most local level consistent with good government.
My approach to the current review of GLA powers is therefore one
that is not piecemeal, but which sets out how certain functions
should be devolved from central government (such as skills and
housing) while some others should become the responsibility of
the Mayor, rather than resting exclusively with boroughs (such
as waste planning and management and the exercise of some planning
powers). To take the example of planning:
— At national level, the overall planning
policy framework should be set and mechanisms for hearing final
appeals and call-ins to the Secretary of state should be preserved.
— At citywide or regional level, strategic
planning applications should be considered and a vision for the
physical development of the area be agreed. This same level should
be charged with the responsibility of ensuring that local development
plans are in general conformity with the city regional plan, and
also have a role to determine strategically significant planning
applications alongside the boroughs concerned.
— At local level, the vast majority
of planning applications should be decided and a local plan—in
general conformity with the city-regional plan—be developed.
7. To take another example, policing, at
present London has England's only regional police force. This
is not to say that all decisions relating to policing are only
taken at a regional level. My Safer Neighbourhoods initiative
illustrates quite the opposite can occur in practice—regionally
funded and led initiatives can be delivered at a local level.
Government plans for police force reform support the view that
leadership and capacity are often required at a regional or sub-regional
level.
8. However it is premature to talk about
the potential for devolution to or from regional to local level,
as outside of London, England does not have directly elected regional
government. My preference is for further devolution from the centre
to the city-regions—that is more strategic alliances of
cities and their hinterlands—which would of course involve
close working with existing local government structures.
THE EFFECTIVENESS
OF CURRENT
ARRANGEMENTS FOR
MANAGING SERVICES
AT THE
VARIOUS LEVELS,
AND THEIR
INTER-RELATIONSHIPS
9. Current arrangements in London have proved
to be effective. This is because the GLA has been set up as a
city model that is consistent with a regional model.
10. In my first five and a half years as
Mayor I have:
— published the London Plan, providing
a clear strategic direction for the capital;
— ensured that £10 billion investment
programme in transport is underway, to give Londoners a twenty-first
century transport system;
— overseen an increase in bus use of
one third since 1998;
— introduced the congestion charge
which has reduced congestion in London by 30%;
— provided the Metropolitan Police
with sufficient budget to increase police numbers in the capital
by nearly 8,000 since 2001;
— worked in partnership with the government
to establish a three-year childcare affordability programme;
— played a leading role in London being
selected to host the 2012 Olympic Games.
11. This is not to say that more cannot
be done or that the current inter-relationships always function
perfectly. The following constitute the key challenges going forward:
— making the case to Government that
in certain key areas (waste disposal, skills, planning and housing),
the Mayoralty requires further strategic powers (see below);
— creating links between agencies charged
with delivering major physical regeneration schemes and housing
capacity and those charged with providing support to businesses
and skills training;
— integrating services and budgets
across the GLA Group (City Hall working with Transport for London,
the London Development Agency, the Metropolitan Police Authority
and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority together
with any new bodies set up as a result of the Review of Powers
exercise) so that regional government in the capital is an efficient
and effective as it can be.
12. In respect of the Government's review
of GLA powers, I am making the following case:
— Housing: the Mayoralty should be
given responsibility for the London Housing Strategy to be developed
in conjunction with the spatial development, economic development
and transport strategies. Decisions on how the Regional Housing
Pot is spent in the capital would also be made at citywide level.
— Skills: London's five Learning and
Skills Councils should be rationalised into one body and be made
accountable to the Mayoralty to deliver London's unique needs.
— Planning: the Mayor should be granted
the power to direct a local planning authority not to adopt a
Local Plan if it is not in general conformity with the London
Plan. Additionally the Mayor's power to direct refusal of a strategic
planning application should be extended to directing approval.
— Waste: a Single London Waste Authority
accountable to the Mayor should be created to be responsible for
the planning, treatment and disposal of the capital's waste and
also enabling the Mayor to identify specific sites for waste management.
THE POTENTIAL
FOR NEW
ARRANGEMENTS, PARTICULARLY
THE ESTABLISHMENT
OF CITY-REGIONS
13. I strongly support the Government's
emerging plans for the establishment of city-regions. England's
"core" cities of Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool,
Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, together with
other major provincial cities, will play a major role in the country's
future prosperity and are critical to any moves towards a more
inclusive and sustainable society. These arguments are made very
powerfully in the ODPM's report "Our Cities Are Back",
published in 2004.
14. It is widely acknowledged that England
has some of the least empowered city governments in the developed
world. This needs to change and I would argue that the London
experience has much to recommend in it as a model for England's
other city regions—ie the "core" cities and their
surrounding metropolitan areas.
15. Recent evidence, much of it from the
ODPM itself, clearly points towards cities and their hinterlands
being the key drivers of economic growth. They are certainly the
most sustainable form of land use, and offer a critical scale
that can drive forward new approaches to securing a more sustainable
pattern of development and infrastructure.
16. New ideas for supporting working across
local authority boundaries need to be found, especially in the
city-regions. Some initiatives are already underway. For example,
the seven metropolitan authorities in the West Midlands are currently
looking to appoint a project director (at a senior level) to provide
oversight of that city-region area.
17. In some cases voluntary alliances might
be the way forward, as is the case with the West Midlands at present,
but for others there is an argument that a GLA-type structure
could work best, provided local communities and councils approve.
18. The over-riding point is that city-regions
are the most logical organising unit for local government at a
strategic level, including consideration of planning, transport
and regeneration issues. It is particularly striking how little
devolution there is outside of London on transport decisions and
priorities.
19. With directly elected regional government
now unlikely to occur in England for the foreseeable future, there
needs to be far greater clarity about the principles and powers
that should rest at the city-region level. I have suggested a
couple of areas above but, while London's lessons are important
for the rest of the country, the city-regions themselves must
set out, through dialogue with Government, the direction they
wish to take.
20. Part of the devolution agenda will involve
a paring back of the government offices with a transfer of many
of their responsibilities to the city-regions and local government,
or to county councils in more rural areas.
THE IMPACT
WHICH NEW
REGIONAL AND
SUB-REGIONAL
ARRANGEMENTS, SUCH
AS THE
CITY REGIONS,
MIGHT HAVE
UPON PERIPHERAL
TOWNS AND
CITIES
21. The experience in London has been that
citywide government has had a positive impact on peripheral towns
and cities. A major city functioning in an efficient and competitive
manner is bound to have a positive impact on surrounding areas.
22. Many of those working in London are
commuters from outside of London's borders—just under a
fifth of London's workers commute from outside of London and,
additionally, one in 10 employed residents in the South East and
East of England regions rely on London for work. These commuters
benefit from improvements to London's transport infrastructure
and reductions in congestion.
23. In other parts of the country, the position
of major cities in relation to their surrounding areas will no
doubt differ. However a vibrant Manchester, Newcastle or Bristol
can only be good for those parts of the country in which they
are located.
24. The London Plan stresses the importance
of close inter-regional co-operation, particularly between London
and its immediate neighbours—the South East and East of
England regions. Whether this in itself can tackle economic disparities
is questionable. London's status as a world city makes it almost
inevitable that it will operate in different economic circumstances
from the rest of the country. It is important to note that while
London is, generally speaking, "wealthy", 41% of children
in London, and 51% in Inner London, are living in poverty, compared
with 28% nationally.
25. A recent report by GLA Economics (Growing
Together—London and the UK Economy) makes a number of telling
points on the economic interdependence of London and England's
other regions:
— The relationship between London's
economy and the rest of the UK's economy is one of mutual and
positive interdependency.
— Economic growth in London and other
parts of the UK have moved in tandem for at least the last 20
years.
— Individuals tend to move out of London
to other parts of the UK later in their careers taking their skills
and experience with them to the benefit of those regions.
— The concentration in London of wholesale
financial and related professional business services creates the
opportunity for London and the rest of the UK to benefit from
inter-regional trade.
— A stronger London benefits the rest
of the UK by providing funds for better public services throughout
the country as London continues to generate more in tax revenues
than it receives in public spending.
26. London and England's city-regions need
to grow together. Devolution in London will remain incomplete
as long as the core cities—and their neighbouring metropolitan
areas—continue to function with so little autonomy.
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