In Devo We Trust? Local and regional devolution on its own will not guarantee success

When I listen to people discussing the issue of local and regional devolution, I’m now thinking that – ok it might help localities and regions exert more influence and control over what they do and how the deliver it. But I have several concerns:

Local government has been hammered by 14 years of cuts. Localities and regions currently lack the budgets, resources, statutory frameworks, institutional capacities and capabilities to be effective at delivering local economic development and levelling up. They’ve been hammered by government austerity and cuts since 2010. Delivery requires knowledge, capability and capacity. It requires having the right systems, structures, people, management, stakeholder relationships, communication and governance. We simply cannot deliver local and regional prosperity unless we accept that we need to invest in and develop the machinery of government.

There’s no clear governance or subsidiarity framework. There’s no obvious set of ‘subsidiarity arrangements’ – who does what, and which geographical level. Its almost random if you look through this in England. Its as much of a confusing patchwork as national government is.

The delivery gap is massive – if we track against ambitions. Whatever happens with devolution – there’s always a search for solutions and the big challenge is delivery. We’ve seen so many exhortations of policy goals and aims, with the latest being the 2022 Levelling Up White Paper. But we’re probably seeing less than 5% of these ambitions being delivered.

What’s the balance between local and regional power? Many combined authorities are stymied by constituent authorities. Some haven’t allowed CAs to undertake strategic responsibilities. Many local authorities don’t want CAs or other devolution arrangments to become strategic fundholders who dole out cash. However – there are some functions best done at the regional level, some best done at the local level.

Devolution in itself is just another machinery of government, it doesn’t guarantee success. Devolution doesn’t guarantee a growth and prosperity dividend. Look at Scotland and Wales, they haven’t exactly shone in this regard. In Scotland, devolution has resulted in more centralisation of power, and perhaps a less locally-sensitive approach to government and economic development.

How to begin to solve this, and progress devolution so it might have a meaningful impact?

1. Be clear about the devolution goals. We need some clear objectives for the national economy and where devolution fits in. Think – Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timebound objectives
2. Set out detailed accountability and governance arrangements. We need formalised lines of accountability, responsibility and governance
3. Clearly articulate subsidiarity. We need clearer strategies and delineate who does what
4. Nothing will get better until we invest in Levelling Up. We need more investment and resources, capacities and capabilities
5. Invest in capability and capacity. A community of practice, development and training resources and mechansisms would help
6. No need to invent new assurance mechanisms. We need to trust in existing local government assurance and governance mechanisms (they are extensive and robust)
7. Create a menu with powers. Have a menu of devo powers, tools and resources with baked in statutory status that can be pulled down; and articulate how the tiers of local government and national government work together
8. Learn from the past! We have blueprints – the No Stone Unturned Heseltine review of Local Growth – still very relevant. The Industrial Strategy and local substrategies – relevant! We are terrible at learning from the past.
9. Create a competitive environment – in terms of celebrating success, winners, and cutting edge practice. We want laggard regions to see the cutting edge regions and say “we want some of that”
10. Most of all – a national government that sets some simple, clear, coherent objectives and goals – and sets up long-term policy platforms (10+ years)

Devolving bus regulation is very welcome – but we will need to go further, deeper and faster on public services, economic initiatives and local economic development to really address levelling up.

I help build great economic development organisastions

I help local leaders translate their economic ambitions into winning advocacy and solutions that get funded. I’ve works all over the UK – from the Highlands of Scotland to Wales, Bristol, Teeside, North East England, Gloucestershire, London, Cambridgeshire and Sussex.

Get in touch via LinkedIn messaging or the contact form on his website.