Theme 3
- Theme 3
Quick take
Devolving powers and funding requires the capacity and capability to deliver at a sub-national level, as well as clear governance and accountability.
Many local authorities have been hollowed out over the last 15 years and do not have the resources to take on significant new responsibilities. We need to address the fact that organisational capabilities vary from place to place before more standardised structures are introduced across England.
Areas with the lowest local tax base and most acute social need will need to be better supported to enable them to realise their full potential.
The English Devolution White Paper does recognise this challenge and makes commitments to support capacity building with funding and wider assistance planned.
Capacity and skills
Candid assessment is required around organisational capacity and skills, in specialist disciplines such as strategic planning.
Enabling funding and broader on-going support from national government is likely to be necessary to support upskilling in local authorities if devolution is to be a success, particularly if, as is envisaged, strategic authorities will play a pivotal role in determining major planning issues.
The civil service secondment scheme proposed in the English Devolution White Paper could help address capacity and skills issues, but given recent cuts to departmental spending, there needs to be capacity in both national and regional bodies to fully effect change.
Strategic Authorities will require extra administrative, analytical and research support both in-house and from the private sector.
For example, the Better Buses Bill will soon provide all local authorities with the power to decide bus routes, frequencies and fares. The intent is to refocus decision-making around public needs rather than commercially determined demand. While the detail is yet to be published, this could lead to better servicing of rural communities and better alignment with areas of significant housing growth (eg urban extensions).
However, the Bill does not currently provide local authorities with any extra funding, raising questions about whether some authorities will have the expertise needed to carry out these highly technical tasks.
Local authorities will need clear guidance on their statutory duties, particularly in how limited funds should be prioritised and, ultimately, will need long-term funding settlements to expand organisational capacity as well as deliver the required services.
Case study:
West Midlands Growth Company
The West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) is a not-for-profit organisation primarily funded by the West Midlands Combined Authority and its constituent authorities. Its mission is to attract investment, business and visitors to the West Midlands; among other things it has helped deliver significant housing developments across the West Midlands, including developments around proposed High Speed 2 sites.
The WMGC makes the most of limited resources: as a result of sitting outside the Combined Authority it avoids some of the resource constraints currently faced by local government. Its structure also enables it to bring together public, private and academic stakeholders to deploy the full range of talent in the West Midlands and it has successfully created a role at the forefront of regional promotion to the world’s developers and investors.
Case study:
Transport for London
Transport for London (TfL) was established as an operating body of the Greater London Authority as part of the capital’s devolution settlement in 2000. In its early years, a strong focus was placed on the organisation’s operational independence and capacity development, reflecting the need for a fresh approach to delivering transport services in London.
As part of this, TfL brought in international expertise at executive level to help it learn from what worked in other parts of the world and was allowed to set renumeration levels outside of typical public-sector pay constraints. This approach was arguably successful in building one of the most distinctive, high-performing transport agencies in any major city, albeit one that built upon long-established predecessor organisations, and the structure also helped enable TfL to implement, what were at the time, innovative schemes such as the London Congestion Charge.
