England’s mayors should be given sweeping new powers, says devolution expert | Devolution

Mayors should be given power over a wide range of public services, including social care, childcare and skills, according to an article written by one of the people who helped shape Andy Burnham’s devolution plans.

JP Spencer, head of devolution policy at think tank ThinkLabour, calls for mayors to take control over large parts of service delivery in a document that gives an indication of how the potential next prime minister may seek to shift power away from Whitehall.

Spencer is one of a small team of policy experts who have been offering insight to Burnham in recent weeks; The Makerfield MP is trying to develop his policy platform with the aim of becoming prime minister at the end of this month.

Earlier this week, Burnham announced plans to move part of the Downing Street operation to Manchester, warning: “The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power to regions and nations are well over.”

Britain has some of the worst regional inequalities in the western world, with seven of the 10 poorest regions in Northern Europe. What many experts blame is the country’s highly centralized politics.

“National command and control systems have been inadequate to deal with our more complex problems,” Spencer said.

His article argues for “a radical reshaping of the state around local democratic boundaries, at the level of local or strategic authority, supported by a central state that encourages rather than controls.”

Under their plans, mayors will appoint health and education commissioners who will take on a role similar to that played by police and crime commissioners, overseeing local schools, GPs and childcare providers.

Mayors should be given direct control of sixth form colleges and the government’s skills agenda, for which they are likely to receive more than £4bn from the growth and skills levy to help pay for this.

Meanwhile, health commissioners appointed directly by mayors will oversee public health and primary care.

On policing, Spencer supports Shabana Mahmood’s plans to reduce the size of the police force, but recommends aligning them with mayoral areas, as some already do, and allowing mayors to become police and crime commissioners.

burnham reportedly skeptical On Mahmood’s proposals to merge 43 forces in England and Wales into 12 to 20 larger regional police forces. However, aligning these with mayoral areas and strategic authorities could address concerns that major powers would be unaccountable.

Spencer’s ideas had previously been considered by current housing and local government minister Steve Reed, but ministers decided not to go further than the existing devolution bill, which allows mayors to seek new powers.

Reed told the Guardian he wanted to go further, saying: “This country is being torn apart by regional economic inequality. The answer is to go further on devolution.”

Meanwhile, Reed’s predecessor at the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Angela Rayner, will give a speech on Wednesday night announcing her commitment to greater devolution. Rayner has been mentioned as a possible successor to Reed during the Burnham government.

But some in the Labor Party are concerned about the rush to shift power away from Whitehall. Some MPs in Kent, for example, are understood to be concerned about the prospect of introducing a mayor to their borough who would almost certainly represent Nigel Farage’s UK Reform Party.

Keir Starmer’s principal secretary Darren Jones warned on Wednesday that the push for devolution must be combined with cuts in Whitehall.

“In the past, we have moved towards creating more state rather than more power in those areas by duplicating controls both in the regions and at Westminster,” he told Restate’s Remaking the State conference. “So for this to really work, Westminster needs to trust local leaders to make the right decisions.”