Member Article

Elected mayors need wider remit, argues think tank

Elected mayors will need a wider remit to meet the challenges they are tasked with, suggests a study by Centre for Cities.

The urban economies think tank have published a data study called Mayoral Manoeuvres, that shows mayors will represent at least two thirds more people than the average constituency MP.

If all cities vote to have a mayor on May 3, then an additional 10% of people in England will be led by a mayor, and when London is included this rises to over a quarter of the country’s population.

Mayors will inherit the responsibilities of Council Leaders had before them and deal with significant budgets, and the study asks is the remit wide enough to make a difference?

Unlike London’s mayor, elected mayors will need to manage a range of public services and Centre for Cities argues that the economy should be at the heart of the mayor’s agenda with little distraction from the running of these services.

They suggest a ‘metro mayor’ to govern across local authorities, covering a larger geographic footprint to reflect the city’s natural economy.

Alexandra Jones, Chief Executive of Centre for Cities said, “Centre for Cities’ data provides a snapshot of the size of the job mayors will face in the cities that elect them.

“Like council leaders, they will have a big job to do and it still remains to be seen what powers will be devolved to mayors.

“At the very least we think they should make decisions over transport and planning that are of strategic importance for growth. This is where effective decision making can really shape the economic fortunes of cities.”

“In the short term, mayors will need to focus on building excellent relationships with neighbouring authorities to ensure that decisions on major planning, skills and transport policies are not restricted by political boundaries.

“By the time of the next electoral cycle in 2016 we hope that national government will allow those cities with the appetite for it to introduce metro mayors.”

The study notes that each of the prospective mayoral cities is currently experiencing more business closures than new starts, although the scale of the challenge varies.

Additional powers suggested to boost the mayor’s capabilities include chairing the Integrated Transport Authority, affording more strategic influence over transport policy across the natural economic area, and co-chairing of the LEP, which would allow the mayor to affect decisions of strategic importance within the remit of the LEP, such as Enterprise Zones.

The example of the Manchester’s Combined Authority model is used to demonstrate alternative city-regional governance.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .