Centre for Cities

Empowerment White Paper tomorrow

The Empowerment White Paper is out tomorrow - almost exactly a year after the Sub-National Review was published.

As the FT's Jim Pickard reported yesterday, the White Paper will make it easier for people to back referendums for elected mayors - by allowing online petitions, as well as paper petitions. More on that tomorrow.

Hazel Blears is a fan of petitions, and sees them as a way of giving local people more direct say over their local councils. Tomorrow's White Paper will propose that petitions are used more widely - for example, allowing us to trigger a council debate on how to improve the delivery of local services.

There's been a big debate about petitions, both within CLG and apparently at Cabinet level too. Gordon even suggested last week that the White Paper would give local people "far more power" to petition for the recall of their local councillors - presumably, to force by-elections for unpopular or ineffective councillors. Speaking before the House of Commons Liaison Committee, he said:

"We are bringing forward proposals that will lead to individuals having far more power to petition, far more power to question, far more power to recall."

Did he really mean that?

Meanwhile, here's a reminder of some classic Ministers' quotes on devolution - worth bearing these in mind, when the White Paper comes out tomorrow. This is what John Healey said in 2006:

"Whitehall centralism is the biggest obstacle to progress. The real challenge is to devolve more power, policy decisions and resources from Whitehall to the regions, and to the local level."

Let's see if the White Paper delivers on that rhetoric.

Dolly in London

Question: What's Dolly Parton got in common with Hazel Blears? Answer: John Healey.

Why? Keep on reading... 

I saw Dolly last night, at the fantastic O2 arena in London. Don't laugh - she even made the Guardian Editorial pages the other day.

Anyway, in between "Jolene" and "9 to 5", she mentioned her Imagination Library in Rotherham. Set up in 1996 in her home state of Tennessee, the Imagination Library is a literacy programme for small kids that sends out reading books for free to children aged up to 5 years old. Funded by the Dollywood Foundation, it's now up and running in 45 states in the US - and last year found its way to Rotherham, of all places. Which is right next door to the constituency of...yes, John Healey - Hazel's ministerial colleague at CLG.

It seems that, no matter hard I try, I can't get away from the world of local government. I did look for John in the audience, but couldn't spot him. Did see Catherine Tate, though...who very kindly gave me her autograph.

Tories and RDAs

Over the past year or so, the Conservatives have been dropping heavy hints that they would get rid of Regional Development Agencies. So what would the Tories actually do with RDAs?

Alan Duncan - Shadow Secretary of State for Business & Enterprise - gave us some clues in a speech earlier this week, at Policy Exchange.

Here's the good news for RDAs - the Tories don't plan to abolish you. Duncan even said there were strong arguments for keeping the likes of One North East. But the rest of his speech was less kind...

Duncan said that "businesses are impatient with the existing regional structures", and called for a major rethink in regional policy. He questioned the objectives of RDAs, which he says encourage unhelpful competition between regions. And said that the Sub-National Review was wrong to beef up RDAs' planning and business support powers.

He set out three recommendations for RDAs:

• They should become genuinely business-led bodies, focused on promoting local enterprise. The Tories would stop the transfer of regional planning powers to RDAs. And they would encourage different models of RDAs in each region - "regional policy can only function if there is variety in its institutions".

• The Tories would ditch RDAs' business support function, currently delivered via Business Link. Their Small Business Task Force, led by Doug Richard, has found that one-third of business support funding is spent on administration. They would replace this with a national business support website.

• They would close down RDAs' overseas offices - some, like Yorkshire Forward, have already done this.

Some of this makes good sense - but there are some missing pieces to Duncan's plans, and some unanswered questions. For example, he didn't mention cities at all, and totally overlooked the role of city-regions like Greater Manchester. Instead, the Tories talk about "local areas", without really saying what they mean. They need to take on board one of our key messages, that local authorities need to collaborate more closely across political boundaries on issues like housing, transport and skills.

On planning, the Tories are clearly against any shift away from local authority control - hence their opposition to the Infrastructure Planning Commission, in the Planning Bill. They are right to be concerned about planning and democratic accountability - but it is still not clear how they would handle big strategic planning decisions that require local authorities to look beyond their own boundaries, e.g. for things like airports and major new housing schemes.

Duncan is now working on a regional policy paper, along with George Osborne and Eric Pickles - this will set out more detailed proposals on regional planning, regeneration and skills. Will keep you posted on that.

Roma Bike and congestion charge update

I was on holiday in Rome last week, just in time for the launch of their new bike-sharing scheme, by mayor Gianni Alemanno.

Roma Bike has started small, with just 200 bikes dotted around the centre as part of a 6-month initial experiment. It will be expanded to 20,000 bikes, if successful. The scheme will not cost the city council, and has instead been sponsored by Cemusa - a street furniture company, apparently.

London Mayor Boris Johnson also wants any London scheme to be privately funded. He says that Transport for London is still working out the feasibility of a Central London bike hire scheme. In answer to a question from Nicky Gavron on 18 June (Question 1172, on page 59), he said:

"TfL is working with the Clear Zones Partnership (comprising the London Borough of Camden, City of Westminster and the City of London) and the Royal Parks on the feasibility of a Central London bike hire scheme. Further work is underway to consider a range of options for planning and financing this scheme so as to ensure value for money for the taxpayer. A definitive date for the introduction of any scheme is dependent on the outcome of this work."

As promised during his election campaign, Mayor Boris yesterday announced a consultation exercise that will probably end up scrapping the western extension of the congestion charge - which was introduced by former mayor Livingstone in Feb 2007. The consultation will start in September, and the western extension could be dropped by the end of 2009.

Meanwhile, formal consultation on Greater Manchester's proposed congestion charge scheme starts on Monday 7th - and runs through to 10 October. The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities (AGMA) will decide later this month, whether to hold a public referendum. Manchester leader, Sir Richard Leese, now says a referendum is the most likely way forward.

What happens if Greater Manchester votes "no"? The Government has promised £1.5 billion of cash from the Transport Innovation Fund, for public transport improvements - part of the overall £2.8 billion package - but only if the charge is introduced in 2013. Ruth Kelly has got some tricky decisions ahead, if the vote goes the wrong way...

On your bike, Bristol

Bristol is to become the UK's first "cycling city", with £23m of new investment to promote more bike use in the city - including a major on-street bike rental network, like the Velib scheme in Paris. This will happen as Bristol and its neighbouring authorities continue to consider a congestion scheme, along the same lines as Greater Manchester.

The Paris scheme is massive. Started almost a year ago, there are 1,500 bike racks dotted around the city - and over 20,000 bikes. Here's how it works...For one week, you pay a €5 subscription by credit card at your nearest rack. Your first half hour is free every time, the second half hour is €1, the third half hour is €3, and every other half hour is €4. Longer-term users pay a deposit of €150. Sounds like a complete bargain to me...Paris is now launching a green car-hire scheme, to provide electric cars that you can pick up and drop off anywhere in the city.

But Paris is a lot bigger than Bristol, so Bristol might be better learning from bike schemes in similar-sized cities like Munich. Its "Call a bike" scheme was initially started in 2000 - but it didn't work at first, because many of the registered users didn't actually use it. Re-introduced in 2001, alongside schemes in Berlin (2002), Frankfurt (2003) and Cologne, etc, "Call a bike" is now successful and profitable - with 1,100 bikes on offer in Munich alone. But it took a while for it to reach critical mass.

There are a couple of lessons for Bristol. First, it might want to adopt the simple booking system of "Call a bike" - rather than the expensive GPS technology in Paris, cyclists in Munich just call a security hotline when they rent a bike. Second, Bristol could team up with Bath, and run its scheme across the two cities, to attract more users. One problem, though - Bristol is very hilly!

Other UK cities will be following Bristol - including York, Cambridge and Blackpool. And last year, Ken Livingstone asked Transport for London to examine the feasibility of a bike hire scheme for London. Not sure where that's got to, but I'm sure Boris will be a fan.

Policy Exchange party

Like all good think tanks, Policy Exchange is officially non-partisan. Last night's line-up of guests at their summer party rather proved the point. The BBC's Nick Robinson was in his element, chatting away to "two-brains" David Willetts. And just beside them, the Guardian's Michael White was deep in conversation with former Tory MP (now Labour) Quentin Davies. I wonder if Quentin is kicking himself? Will Hutton was also there. You get the picture...

As White says in today's Guardian, the Tories are now talking about themselves as a government-in-waiting. And last night was no exception. Shadow chancellor George Osborne headlined the night's proceedings, with a rather confident little speech - based on the very strong assumption that he and David are now just watching the clock before they take over Downing Street.

Osborne, meanwhile, is planning a major revamp of the Treasury. As chancellor, he says he would scale back HMT's micro-managing of the rest of Whitehall, and refocus its efforts on controlling public spending.

But (a) this isn't a new proposal - I heard George say the same thing to a Policy Exchange audience two years ago ("The Treasury is broken, and needs to be fixed.") And (b) it's already starting to happen - perhaps by accident, rather than design. One year after Gordon's departure, the Treasury under Alistair Darling has retreated somewhat from its all-powerful omnipresence, and been forced by events (Northern Rock), tax issues (inheritance, capital gains, 10p) and the downturn, to focus more on its finance ministry function.

PS: Osborne is seriously thinking about shifting the administration of tax credits and child benefit, out of Revenue & Customs and into the Department for Work and Pensions. This is partly because of the over-payment of Working and Child Tax Credits, which resulted in a £1 billion loss to the Exchequer in 2006-07. More on that soon.

Young people need more quality homes for rent

Homeownership has dominated the housing agenda for years. But with household growth rising all the time, and the credit crunch now biting hard, demand for private-rented homes is on the up.

In 2001, there were 2.4 million renters in the UK - by 2021, we'll have 3.6 million (according to Hometrack). That's partly because of increased repossessions, individual landlords exiting the buy-to-let market, and young people finding it increasingly hard to buy their first home - all of which is placing additional pressure on the rental sector. As I reported last week, it's the same picture in the United States.

For years, the private-rented sector has been overlooked, compared to homeownership. There's a shortage of high-quality homes for rent, and a limited range - with too many (empty) 1-bedroom flats in cities like Leeds. This is making it hard for young people to find good quality, affordable homes to rent.

Today's report from the Centre for Cities calls for an increase in the number and quality of homes for private rent - especially for 20- and 30-somethings, who cannot afford to buy. We also want to see a more diverse range of rented properties, tailored to local demand. And, crucially, more institutional investment in the private-rented sector (rather than lots of individual, speculative investors) - this will help provide more security to tenants, because institutional investors are better able to ride out a downturn.

Trevor Beattie (Head of the Homes & Communities Agency set-up team) spoke at our launch event today. He added a note of urgency to the debate - with rentals rising sharply in 2007, he said "now is the time to act" to deliver "an entirely new rental offer". He supported our call for more institutional investment, and encouraged developers to come up with the right "Rent to Buy" product - to allow renters to build up a stake in their rented home over time.

Jackie Sadek (CBRE and chair of BURA) said that CBRE and others were already developing new rental products. Richard Best called for the private-rented sector to be better regulated - perhaps through an Ombudsman and redress scheme. And like us, he wants to see a reduction in the number of individual landlords, and an increase in the number of larger, institutional investors.

Listen to Evan Davies quiz me on the Today Programme this morning (at 6.52am). I was also on the Chris Evans show just now (at 6.35pm) - thankfully, he didn't think I sounded like Alan Carr this time...

Smarter, Stronger Cities

American and British cities are different, but they still face a lot of the same issues - like how to build a competitive business base, develop a better-skilled workforce, and green existing buildings. Smarter, Stronger Cities - a new report from the Centre for Cities and Brookings - says that the US has a lot to learn from UK cities, especially our track record of combatting sprawl and supporting low-income families.

I spoke about this yesterday at Brookings' Summit for American Prosperity in Washington DC. Based on my 10-year experience at HM Treasury and the British Embassy in DC, and the Centre's interaction with Brookings over the past 3 years, we are now convinced that the UK has several important lessons to offer US cities. We now need to encourage a two-way exchange on this, ahead of the forthcoming Presidential election - as reported in the Guardian, Daily Express and BBC Online.

The next US Administration should consider importing these five policy lessons from the UK:

1. National leadership: Our national leaders - from Heseltine to Brown - have championed cities over the last 15 years. By contrast, the Bush Administration has largely neglected urban policy - and its lead urban department, HUD. The next Administration should take a stronger leadership role in support of US cities.

2. Evidence base: Bruce Katz said today that the US federal government is a "fact-free zone". Major funding decisions, on transport for example, are too often taken on the basis of pork-barrel politics. In the UK, we have based much of our policy decisions on a steady stream of independent reviews - on transport (Eddington), housing and planning (Barker) and workforce development (Leitch). The US should take a leaf out of our book, and make more use of independent urban policy commissions.

3. Clamp down on urban sprawl: The UK has seen a national drive to make better use of urban land, via brownfield and density targets. In 1997, around 50% of new homes were built on brownfield land - by 2006, that had risen to 75%. And the density of new housebuilding rose from 12 units per hectare in 2002, to 16 per hectare by 2006. Our planning rules have also directed new retail development back towards city and town centres - reducing the number of car-dependent shopping centres and office parks.

4. Traffic management: London's congestion charge - introduced by Mayor Livingstone in 2002 - has triggered a 35% reduction in commuters travelling by car into the centre of London, and a 24% increase in commuters using buses. Greater Manchester had its congestion charge scheme approved by the government earlier this week. Meanwhile, US cities like Miami and Seattle are considering their own road pricing schemes.

5. Support for low-income families: The UK has adapted and expanded the US Earned Income Tax Credit system, making it more generous and responsive, and paid regularly to low-income recipients. We also have a higher National Minimum Wage (around $11 per hour). This has resulted in a big reduction in child poverty, with 1.8 million fewer children in absolute poverty compared to ten years ago.

I'll be briefing a team of Congressional staffers tomorrow, on our tax credit system - just part of our effort from now on, to promote the good stuff that we can offer the US.

America's rental housing

Homeownership is a fundamental part of the American Dream. But over the last two years, the homeownership rate in the US has fallen back to around 67%, due to the credit crunch and high rate of repossessions.

This is having an adverse impact on the rental market, with a sudden increase in demand for affordable rented housing - during 2007, the number of renter households increased by 1 million. At the same time, the supply of new homes for rent has fallen - completions of multifamily units for rent fell last year to just two-thirds of the 2002 level.

This report from the Joint Centre for Housing Studies at Harvard University sets out the case for an expanded, stronger private-rented sector in the US. So does this book, co-produced by the Joint Centre and Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Programme.

There's now a very live debate here about housing - in particular, how to (1) stabilise the downturn, and limit the rise in repossessions (2) develop a higher-quality, better-regulated rental sector, and (3) ensure that homeownership is maintained as the long-term goal for those who want it.    

As in the US, rental housing has been relatively overlooked in the UK. We are facing some similar demand and supply issues, and need to beef up the "mid-market" that Bob Kerslake is now talking about. Next week, we will be publishing a report - with the Smith Institute - on the future of the private-rented sector. And in July, we'll be publishing a second report, on the wider economic impact of housing markets on urban areas.

Manchester's congestion charge

Ruth Kelly today approved Manchester's congestion charging scheme - but as I reported last month, final approval of the scheme does still hang in the balance.

If fewer than seven of the ten AGMA authorities back the scheme, then the whole thing will need to go to a Greater Manchester-wide referendum. Three authorities - Stockport, Trafford and Bury - have already said they won't support it. And Bolton's councillors have promised their voters a separate referendum, once all the facts are available. If Bolton votes "no", that would trigger the full-on referendum.

And guess where Ruth Kelly's seat is? Bolton West. That's why she put out this press release today, urging local people to support the scheme....

In Washington, we talked transport with Brookings today. The US has clearly got a few lessons to learn from the UK on transport policy - that's one of the things we'll be saying in our paper with Brookings, to be released later this week.

A forthcoming report from Robert Puentes will say that US transport infrastructure is suffering from physical neglect and congestion - roads and transit systems are aging and in dire need of repair, tens of thousands of bridges are structurally deficient, and traffic delays are pervasive.

The spike in gas prices is today's top story, but could provide an opportunity for much-needed reform. Between March 2007 and March 2008, the rise in gas prices triggered a significant drop in car use - with Americans travelling 11 billion fewer vehicle miles. This is piling pressure on the already-stretched public transit system, and making the need for new investment all the more urgent. As a result, there is a real appetite among the policy community here to learn from international best practice.

So what can we teach the US on transport? London's congestion charge - and maybe Manchester's - could offer useful lessons for US cities. So could the 2006 Eddington Study - which set out a clear case and evidence base for smarter transport investment, based on rigorous appraisal and evaluation. Here, federal funding of transport projects is driven by "pork-barrel" politics, rather than objective analysis. Our paper with Brookings later this week will call for smarter, evidence-based federal transport investment in key corridors and gateways of national travel and international trade.

This is just one example of how the US could learn useful lessons from the UK. More examples like this coming up...