Andy Burnham has promised that local leaders in England will no longer have to come “cap in hand to Westminster” ahead of a fresh drive to devolve spending power in next week’s budget. In his statement on Wednesday, the chancellor, John Healey, will include plans for a new £1.5bn borrowing facility, to be drawn up in collaboration with mayors over the next two years. Regional mayors have long complained that they are constrained by their limited borrowing power – in contrast to local authorities in the US and some European countries, which commonly issue their own bonds.
The borrowing plan will form part of a big devolution package aimed at boosting regional economic growth. This will also include the allocation of an initial £285m “good growth” funding next year, to be spent on local leaders’ priorities – which could include housing, transport links or high street regeneration. Amid fears in the Treasury about whether some local authorities have the capacity to administer increasingly large budgets, Healey will also announce £150m of support to help them scale up and build expertise.
Hailing the plans, Burnham said they would mean local leaders would no longer need to come to the Treasury for approval for each individual project. That is no way to run a country. When I became prime minister, I said that if a decision can be made closer to home, it should be.
More details of how this will work will be announced at the budget. Local leaders are expected to be allowed to keep some of the additional revenues created by a stronger local economy, giving them an incentive to back pro-growth policies. Tax and spending in the UK is more centralised than in many other leading economies, and Burnham experienced the constraints first-hand as mayor of Greater Manchester.
Healey said: “Mayors and local leaders know what their communities need to grow, which is why we are giving them more money, more power and more capacity to get projects moving, build homes and make the right decisions for their areas.” The package has been drawn up in collaboration with No 10 North, which has been holding a weekly “situation room” meeting with local leaders, to ask them about the barriers to promoting economic growth. This resulted in an announcement this week that the Treasury has called the “green book”, which gives guidanceon which projects taxpayers should fund. Under the new rules, projects that can be combined to boost growth – a housing and a transport scheme, for example – can be considered together.
A government white paper on “rewiring the state”, due to be published after the budget, will set out more details of how the civil service will be reshaped, as more powers are passed down from Whitehall. Alongside the devolution plans, Healey’s first budget is expected to include support for poorer households hit by rising energy costs; and modest tax rises, including on banks. The chancellor has repeatedly said he wants to offer a “breathing space” to households and businesses that have struggled as the war in the Middle East has driven up bills.
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