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As the UK’s new Labour government embarks on the uphill task of reviving the country’s sluggish economy, the growing legion of English elected mayors who gathered at Downing Street on Tuesday believe they hold the key.
The dozen regional figureheads are in the process of drawing up and presenting their own local strategies for economic growth to Sir Keir Starmer’s ministers.
Kim McGuinness, Labour mayor for the North East, said that while each mayor was likely to identify key growth sectors relevant to their areas, certain core themes would be common across the board.
“The underlying infrastructure of opportunity — public transport, housing, childcare, education — are fundamental to growth in the regions,” she said. “This group of mayors knows that and I think they’ve known that for a really long time,” she said.
Starmer welcomed England’s mayors to Downing Street for a first meeting just a few days after arriving as prime minister himself.
He said the regional leaders would be “central” to Labour’s core ambition of securing the fastest economic growth in the G7.
“If it’s going to be growth that is worth having, it’s got to be across the country and in every single place and raising standards in every single place,” Starmer told the group, “and so you are all absolutely central to it.”
In England political power has historically been highly centralised, while London has also long dominated the country’s economic output.
Labour in its manifesto promised to rebalance both characteristics, but has yet to spell out exactly how it will share power with England’s 12 mayoralties. All apart from London have been created since the party was last in government 14 years ago.
While it is expected to quickly form a “council of the nations and regions” the body’s exact structure, direct influence and role have yet to be decided.
The idea was recommended by former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown with the idea of incorporating devolved leaders from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
England’s mayors are also hoping to feature in the make-up of Starmer’s cross-departmental “mission boards”, which will be chaired by the prime minister and oversee each of the government’s main overarching policy objectives, as well as feeding into this autumn’s spending review.
Some mayors have already submitted their own localised growth plans to the new government, with the rest expected to do so before summer recess at the end of July.
Andy Burnham, Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, said that mayors could also help the new government provide “more for less”.
Burnham is pushing for control over the conurbation’s eight suburban rail lines, currently overseen by central government, which he said cost the taxpayer £100mn a year in subsidy because they were underused.
Having the ability to oversee and integrate them into Greater Manchester’s own public transport system, as is the case in London, could “substantially increase passenger numbers”, he said, potentially saving the exchequer while boosting the city region’s economy.
Burnham also said that Greater Manchester was willing to take more than its “share” of Labour’s 1.5mn housing target, but that in return, the region would need more flexibility over housebuilding grants and council house sales.
Regional mayors only cover about half the English population, mostly in the north and the midlands. It remains unclear how Labour will roll out the model further, or how the many areas without mayors will be integrated into central decision-making.
Multiple people involved in Tuesday’s Downing Street meeting described the discussion as “collegiate”, including the only Conservative present, Tees Valley mayor Ben Houchen — who had dubbed the prime minister “Slippery Starmer” during the election campaign.
Despite the positive noises from Starmer, regional leaders will be keen to ensure their own autonomy is not superseded by Labour’s national missions or its planned industrial strategy.
Several stressed in private that their plans for growth must be designed locally, rather than controlled from the centre.
The meeting came as Labour confirmed that “levelling up”, the slogan used by the last government in reference to economic rebalancing, would be dropped from the title of the housing, communities and local government ministry.
Luke Raikes, deputy general secretary of the Labour-affiliated Fabian Society, said that the “hype” of that phrase “was never matched by results”.
Mayors could play a major part in the new government’s own agenda for economic growth, he said, but stressed that the broken finances of England’s local government system would also need to be urgently addressed.
“They need to move quickly,” he said of the new administration, adding: “Come the next election, they will be judged by results on the ground.”
