For too long, we have either turned a blind eye to poverty and disadvantage or hoped that a general rising tide of economic wealth would trickle down. It’s time to reboot prevailing local economic policy – argues Neil McInroy – which is failing the poorest in society.
Devolution in the UK is failing to address the country’s pressing political, social and economic problems, according to a report.
Devolution deals with councils are being squeezed by ‘narrow negotiations’ with Whitehall that were ‘stacked in favour of the status quo’, a new report has claimed.
Theresa May must rethink devolution to stop post-Brexit Britons feeling even more abandoned by the Government, report finds.
Leeds City Council leader Judith Blake has called for a fresh push to end Yorkshire’s devolution deadlock in the wake of the vote to leave the European Union.
Devolution is a great opportunity. After years of oppressive centralisation, devolution deals offer local and combined authorities a chance to break free and forge their own distinctive economic and social destiny. Devolution is not, however, without significant risks and challenges. Our new joint paper ‘The Real Deal: Pushing the parameters of devolution deals’, a collaboration between the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) and the Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI), explores the restrictions in the current devolution agenda, and presents ideas for new types of deals, heralding a more progressive devolution.
The University of Manchester and Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES) play host to the Making Devolution Work conference next week. To mark the event CLES’s Chief Executive Neil McInroy writes the first of a series of blogs around the conference, examining what devolution could mean for the region and country.
The EU referendum has shone a light on the failure of the treasury’s local economic and devolution model. The ‘devolution revolution’ may have beguiled some, but it has passed many by. The promised ‘northern powerhouse’ was a canny brand which few saw any tangible outcome from. Indeed, I know of many economic development practitioners who felt that austerity framed devolution and its bullish treasury-backed city agglomeration ‘growth at all costs’ approach was flawed. However, they rightly got on with it, longing for it to be just a start, and something to grapple, amend and make progressive.
Local authority becomes first in England to take control of its health and social care budget, but there is widespread uncertainty.
More devolution of powers and budgets from Whitehall offers councils the chance to tackle poverty and inequality by ‘doing things differently’.
A think-tank has urged councils to use new devolved powers from Westminster to help tackle poverty and inequality.
This blog is also a chapter in a new e-book ‘The Politics of the North: Governance, Territory and Identity in Northern England, co-edited by SPERI’s deputy director Craig Berry and SPERI researcher Arianna Giovannini.
