
"yesterday's men put in charge of the future"
The effects of the Scottish
independence referendum continue to rock round the country. The issue
of devolution has become a hot topic, not just in Glasgow and
Motherwell, but Greater Manchester too. The three main parties (if
there is such a thing these days) have all signed up to a deal for
more devolved powers for the metropolitan borough with the condition
of an elected mayor.
The speed of this agreement and its
sudden announcement has taken many by surprise. Far from empowering
people in Manchester by involving them in shaping how our city region
is to be run, we have a deal stitched up behind closed doors by the
ruling elite. It's also a deal that is clearly formed to help the
powers that be hang on to their influence.
The Mayor will have
to work with the GMCA as their cabinet essentially. If you are
wondering what the GMCA is you are probably not alone. It comprises
the 10 leaders of the constituent councils of Greater Manchester. So
the people of our city will have no direct democratic control. The
Mayor will be a complete hostage to this body, as two thirds can
reject the strategy and change
budgets. As things stand, this
gives Labour an iron grip without them have to get a single vote
directly.
There is no mention in the agreement document of
anything like the London Assembly. Wales' 3 million inhabitants have
an assembly, while our rulers have unilaterally decided that Greater
Manchester's 2.7 million do not deserve one. The whole construction
means the Mayor risks becoming an empty personality.
The lack
of an assembly means it will be business as usual. If there is
anything that Manchester desperately needs right now to be a
“northern powerhouse”, it is new blood, creativity and breadth of
opinion in its policy makers. The dismal photocall that accompanied
the DevoManc announcement was the polar opposite. It showed
yesterday's men (sic) put in charge of our
future.
Nevertheless,
that future was greeted with quite a lot of purple prose. The detail
is of course more mundane. Greater Manchester is to get control of
various money pots - a housing investment fund, apprenticeship
grants, complex dependency budgets for instance. These will have to
operate in very specific ways, and for example the housing fund can
be taken back by the HCA. The room
for manoeuvre is very small.
It's difficult to see what concrete different choices the electorate
could usefully have about how different Mayors could administer these
pots. To be frank all this requires is a moderately competent
accountant.
Maybe the best thing about the agreement is
greater control over the “earnback” money comprising £900
million over 30 years for substantial projects, even though this is
not new funding. Even so it has to be said that “What do we want?”
“An Earnback Deal!” “When do we want it?” “After a gateway
assessment!” hardly makes the political heart beat faster. To put
it in context, the Trafford line extension is scheduled to cost £350
million, over a decade's worth of “earnback”.
There is no
substantial new money coming to Greater Manchester. But what the deal
does do is commit the Mayor and their cabinet to “fiscal
consolidation” and taking any “reductions that are made to
devolved funding streams” - in English, cuts. Just to be clear,
Greater Manchester Labour has agreed to a cuts framework made by the
Tories. In the bigger picture, any mayor would still have to do what
a Conservative government told them.
Perhaps the best thing
that can be said about this deal overall is that it shows a potential
for change and a direction of travel. But that journey has to be
determined by people from Ramsbottom to Reddish, not the same old
collection of knights of the realm. Until that changes, devolution
this is not.
Liked this piece? Please chip in £2 here so OurKingdom can keep producing independent journalism.
Read more
Get our weekly email
Comments
We encourage anyone to comment, please consult the oD commenting guidelines if you have any questions.