100 days of Eric

It’s 100 days (tomorrow) since Eric Pickles first walked into the Communities and Local Government department and he’s certainly been busy.

His intentions have been clear from the start. Eric’s response to a question about how the job was going shortly after his appointment was, “It’s like a big jigsaw…but with fewer pieces very soon.” And, having established that his priorities are localism, localism and localism (not necessarily in that order), Eric immediately set about making things happen.

And change has happened. Jigsaw pieces are rapidly being moved off the table in a series of bold announcements. RDAs and Government Offices are being abolished. Regional Spatial Strategies are being scrapped. The Infrastructure Planning Commission has closed. And – the most jaw-dropping cut so far – the Audit Commission is going by 2012.

There’s been a crackdown on spending too, with local authorities no longer able to spend money on lobbying Whitehall, and all local authorities being asked to publish expenditure over £500. CLG became the first Whitehall department to do this last week.

Cities and local areas are being asked to be bold about what they want in this new policy landscape, with limited public expenditure. There are rewards for local housebuilding through the New Homes Bonus (although we are sceptical about its impact), whilst Eric Pickles has been explicit that he wants bids for Local Enterprise Partnerships to ‘make the case’ for whatever powers they feel are necessary to support the local economy – although there are no guarantees that the powers requested will be granted.

And that’s the 100 day question. Whilst there has been plenty of welcome decentralisation, how much power will be devolved to support cities to achieve the coalition’s key objectives: deficit reduction, economic growth and jobs? We know that cities will be critical to achieving these goals; they contain the people, businesses and infrastructure that will generate growth. But we don’t know how much power they will gain to make change happen.

As the government moves into its second 100 days and towards the Spending Review, we would encourage the coalition to:

1. Ensure that questions about how to achieve economic and employment growth are at the heart of its localism agenda. Cities will be vital to creating the private sector jobs the UK needs but they will require powers and flexibility over funding to do this;
2. Enable action to be taken at the level of the ‘real’ economy. Businesses are not confined by local authority boundaries. Policies to support business growth shouldn’t be either – and this will look different in different areas;
3. Establish a coalition view of what localism means in practice. Different views about whether it means local government or individuals have already led to confusion about the introduction of elected mayors; the white paper creates an important opportunity to set out clear principles for the future.

Decentralisation of responsibilities and duties to the lowest effective level is important. But real devolution means powers and flexible financing, at the right level, to support dynamic cities and business growth. For the coalition government to be successful, cities will need both.

Comments

[Simon Hooton]

I like your 3 questions, esp the recurring theme of what is the "right level" here are some thoughts on the role of business support in growing the economy http://www.regeneris.co.uk/news.asp?ID=272

[Alexandra Jones]

Thanks Simon. We're currently writing a paper as part of our Agenda for Growth series on how to support enterprise growth - given that all the net new jobs over at least the next five years will need to come from the private sector - so the article's very relevant.

[Ben Harrison]

Alex - I'm interested to know what the Centre's thinking on these issues in the London context is. London is the only place in England where regional government will remain (and likely be strengthened). We know that the LDA and London HCA will no longer exist as entities in their own right, and that bodies such as OPLC will likely be brought into the GLA as well.

But what role for localism and the devolution of budgets to Borough level?