Labour need not rush into devolution

The first 100 days of any government are always a hectic time in politics. This is when new ministers and civil servants are hard at work throwing out old ideas, introducing new policies and showing voters that their vote has made a real difference to politics and the country.

Last Monday we saw that planning reform came first, with big announcements about housing, energy infrastructure, all in the name of increasing economic growth. All of this is incredibly sensible because it can all be done quickly and it was coupled with the promise that more will come.

The government should adopt a similar approach to devolution. There are small changes that can be made quickly, including in the case of English DThe Evolution Bill should be seen as a prelude to the larger reforms that will follow and will have a major impact on economic growth across England.

Decentralization matters for growth

Later last week, for the first time since their appointment, all the tube mayors met the prime minister at 10 Downing Street. They were told that the government sees tube mayors as key to making national economic growth “tangible” across England because they have a “vested interest” in delivering in their place, and that there is more to come on devolution.

As previously set out in the Labour Party resolution:Turning on the power‘paper published in March, devolution to structures equivalent to functional economic areas (FEAs) in England is a key principle that links the government’s devolution agenda with its national growth programme. Greater devolution includes both ‘extending’ to FEAs that currently do not have metro mayors and ‘deepening’ in places that already have metro mayors.

Labour has previously said it will move forward with “extending” powers by asking all councils not currently covered by devolution agreements to begin preparatory work for devolution ANDthis week, Deputy Prime Minister he wrote Down local leaders to start this process. And “deepening” means that city mayors will take on new statutory duties in the field of spatial planning and the creation of “local development plans”.

The new bill can be fast or comprehensive, but not both at the same time

Some of these changes basic legislation is needed, AND English Dthe draft bill on evolution contained in the king’s speech This is to provide this.

THe English decentralization The Bill presents the Government with a dilemma. It could be either a short and sharp Bill, designed to quickly transfer a small number of previously announced powers, or the final piece of devolution legislation introduced in this Parliament. The Government probably cannot achieve both very rapid and very significant devolution in the same Bill.

Partly this is about a simple trade-off in terms of speed versus detail. But it is also about the nature of devolution as a subject. Local government is complex and has many links with other policy areas. Planning is the most visible, but other policy areas that need attention, such as local finance, present difficult choices that are easier to resolve if they are considered alongside devolution. If policy continues to be made in these other areas and departments, then any bill that seeks to transfer these policy areas to local government will be delayed.

One quick bill and one big bill would be good for decentralization

The worst of all worlds would be to try to introduce English decentralization the draft bill was short and concise, but over time it turned into a much more extensive and complicated legal act, without a clear legal framework.

This would consume vast amounts of time and power with no guarantee of significant progress, as recent examples have shown. The Localism Bill did not receive Royal Assent until almost two years after the May 2010 election, and the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, which, from its inception in the July 2020 Planning White Paper, did not become law until October 2023. These timescales would risk exhausting the power and time for any further basic local government legislation for the rest of Parliament.

To effectively deal with this dilemma, the government should copy his approach to planning and allocation his separation of work into two threads.

Short and sharp English decentralization a bill that can quickly pass through parliament and enter into force as soon as possible would allow the government to point to success immediately. This English Devolution The bill could propose local development plans, giving mayors strategic planning powers, transferring employment support to mayors and giving local authorities powers to work with GB Energy and the Warm Homes Plan.

More complex the draft law on the transfer of powers may be presented later

There will still be time for a more comprehensive Local Government Bill to be introduced later in this Parliament. If this Bill includes a review of local government and local finance, it could be combined with other programmes such as the bus franchise, planning reform and wider public sector reform. With this stronger foundation, local government could play a much greater role in driving growth in local economies.

The City Centre will soon publish proposals on how this deeper phase of devolution will proceed, including reform of the geography and finances of local government across England.

The government is right that decentralization is important both to drive growth and to make national success tangible to voters in every part of the country. Quick victories on decentralization are also needed, and English decentralization the Act can easily provide them. But it need not rush into the great task of fixing the biggest problems in local government.