Posted on April 29, 2024

Ten years ago, in 2014, shortly after the intense devolution debates for the Scottish referendum, I wrote a series of articles setting out the ten principles for English City Regions Devolution and explaining Why City Region Mayors Matter.  

David Cameron, then Prime Minister and now Foreign Secretary, was quoted as saying that there is “political consensus across the main parties that devolving power and money from Whitehall to the cities [...] is the future. The debate now is about how far and fast it can go”.

Ten years on I suggest that we’ve not gone anywhere near far or fast enough to create the political structures to plan and deliver the housing and infrastructure this country desperately needs. 

In this general election year, it’s important that political leaders communicate precisely what it is they propose in order to deliver housing and infrastructure in England.

Here I review the 10 observations for election manifestos based upon pragmatic responses and our extensive involvement in property regeneration and investment:

1.     Functional economic geography - Combined Authorities based on City Regions have the potential to be very effective because they’re based on functional economic geography.  Combined Authorities must have the appropriate budgets, powers and governance to be aligned with their geographical jurisdiction and an obvious ‘capital’ / core - city based on their main travel-to-work-areas. They should not be based on historical legacies of inappropriate 10^th Century county and local boundaries.

2.     City Regional Combined Authorities (CiRCAs) – CiRCAs have a key role in delivering strategic housing and employment land; infrastructure; and tackling climate change.  City Regions are the appropriate scale given the increasing economics of agglomeration centred on cities and the transport infrastructure required for local/city wide journey and inter-city travel. CiRCAs should be given the appropriate strategic powers and fiscal budgets to solve these issues for their communities.

3.     Governance – Full fiscal devolution requires good governance and direct accountability to the electorate of a functioning economic footprint.  Good governance should be transparent, with a clear means of scrutinising decisions and holding those with power to account. CiRCAs could have a directly elected Mayor and Assembly members in order to provide the democratic accountability for full fiscal devolution.  The challenge is to encourage local authority leaders to cede power to the Combined Authority and this process has already begun.  Whitehall civil servants also have to cede control and government should impose this on Whitehall to encourage and support local politicians. 

4.     Metro Mayors – Mayors and Mayoral Assemblies are best placed to represent cities in a global context. Currently, Combined Authorities’ governance tends to be made up of local authority leaders with a single elected Mayor – Metro Mayor. Better to have an elected assembly, as in Greater London, to prevent local v city-regional conflicts of interest and to provide direct accountability.  Metro Mayors are the figurehead with a role in advocating for their city-region both in Westminster and internationally.

5.     Strategic Planning – CiRCAs should be the main plan-making bodies for England.  CiRCAs would be empowered to plan their city region effectively including strategic housing and employment allocations; green and blue infrastructure and transport planning etc.  This could still be based on the principles within the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and the future National Development Management Policies. This would avoid the unintended consequences and delays of incongruous local authority boundaries.

6.     Housing delivery – By having control of the plan-making process, CiRCAs are best placed to manage growth holistically including the re-use and regeneration of brownfield land and the allocation of strategic greenfield land (including regular green belt review).  CiRCAs can unite housing delivery with infrastructure planning to ensure that plans are viable and deliverable.  There could still be a role for Neighbourhood Plans and local authorities could still have a role in determining certain planning applications.

7.     Transport Planning - By definition the city regions are generally based upon travel-to-work patterns. Therefore, the city regions need to have control of the transport infrastructure and budgets.  The model is already established with the Greater London Authority and Transport for London and this model should be applied across all our city regions.  An integrated city-regional approach to public transport across the city region is the best way to tackle climate change from transport emissions.

8.     Funding - Combined Authorities, Homes England, county and local authorities can have overlapping roles when it comes to unlocking investment for infrastructure and housing.  Funding is allocated on a political basis and as we’ve seen from the Levelling Up Fund is currently difficult to deploy. One of the key requirements for business investment is certainty and transparency.  CiRCAs should harness the power of the private sector as the main regeneration agency for their areas.  

9.     Rural Areas - If implemented comprehensively, there is no reason why all parts of England cannot face a core city and be part of a City Region Combined Authority.  This is not to diminish the impact of the rural economy, but the majority of the population lives and works in city regions. There have to be administrative boundaries and it’s common sense that these should be in the remotest parts of the country. It’s the responsibility of the Metro Mayors to ensure that the rural economies are empowered.

10.  Healthy Competition - By devolving power to the city regions we need to encourage healthy competition between them – for example, when competing for significant inward investment (eg. the BBC to Salford, Greater Manchester and Channel 4 to Leeds etc) it’s quite legitimate and healthy for the city regions to compete for this investment. Contrast this with the old Counties and Regional Development Agencies which are compromised and conflicted by facing multiple ways with competing cities within their area.

Conclusion

There’s no need to fundamentally reform Town Planning in order to deliver housing and growth.  We have the skills, policies and tools (e.g. S106, CIL, CPO etc.) to deliver already.  What we do need to reform is the politics and leadership in order to plan and deliver the environment that we deserve.