At long last the Levelling Up White Paper has been published. Over its long gestation period it has moved a long way from the idea of wholesale reform of local government. This is not terribly surprising given the backlash the attempts made last year generated.
The intention behind the White Paper is to tackle the stark geographical inequality within the UK. It characterises previous policy failures to do this as a lack of:
- Longevity and policy sufficiency; code for - an excess of short termism and poor policy making. Unfortunately our Government is enmeshed in, self-inflicted, short term issues.
- Policy and delivery coordination; code for - a lack of joined up government.
- Local empowerment; code for - we have tried to run everything top-down and it hasn’t worked.
- Evidence, monitoring and evaluation; code for - we had no idea policies did not work and had no real idea of what is happening on the ground.
- Transparency and accountability; code for - managing things needs to be given a chance.
Forgive the cynicism but, we have had more than thirty years of governments of all descriptions trying to address this problem. This appears to me to be the first time that the issues that need to be tackled and the levers that need to be pulled have been properly addressed.
Underlying this approach is the desperate need to improve the UK’s economic performance. Since 2007 the improvement in the UK’s productivity has been extremely weak. With all the challenges we now face, this is the year this lack of performance begins to bite.
If these proposals are really driven through, it will mean that local leadership will have to rise to the challenge. There will need to be a much clearer focus on the strategic long term view, based on at least a ten year time horizon. I cannot help but think that this will mean making some challenging and probably unpopular decisions in the face of inevitable protests. In the feedback we received to the public consultation on SDC’s budget for next year, one of the pieces of feedback that horrified me was “people will always come to Stratford”. This is the kind of short term complacency we cannot afford. We need to invest now for the benefit of future generations. To do this we will need district councillors who are prepared to provide real community leadership and not just “bend with the wind” every time there are protests, in reality, by a small minority.
As Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, put it “The more ambitious [we are] the better.” We are certainly ambitious. We have two areas of development of potentially international significance; the “World Shakespeare Centre and Wellesbourne Campus/Airfield. The amount of time and effort we have put, and are still putting in, to make these a reality is huge. The prizes will be well worth it. We have one other area of development that is of merely national significance, the Porterbrook Rail Innovation Centre at Long Marston. Not bad for a rural District Council.
Indeed, we made a presentation to Andy Street a couple of weeks ago about these projects and our initiatives. The feedback we have had is that he was impressed.
This is very important because the West Midlands has been identified as an area that will be at the forefront of devolution. It will serve as a model for other Metropolitan Combined Authorities in line for a “trailblazing” deepening devolution deal. As yet there is no understanding of what that will mean in practice.
I should remind everyone that we are a non-constituent member of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), as is Warwickshire County Council.
I anticipate that a “deepening devolution deal” will mean that the WMCA gains power, influence and that increasingly financing and resources will be channelled through it. Given the scale of our ambitions and the investment needed to underpin the likely shape of the South Warwickshire Plan through to 2050, this can only be to our advantage.
Many people may find what I have said uncomfortable. If we are to shape a very positive and exciting future for the District, however, we will need an organisation with the scale, resources and ambition to help us achieve it. I think that the WMCA is therefore “the only game in town”.
This really is a time to seize the day and our opportunities. We intend to do just that.
The way we work enables us to really get stuff done. As a Cabinet we work closely together as a team, we spend a great deal of time discussing issues and making sure we are all “on the same page.” We also have a strong working relationship and openness with our officers. They are also extremely competent.
One of the big differences between ourselves and the opposition is that they want to talk about doing things and we just want to get things done. I also believe that they do not really understand how the world of today works. They do not appear to grasp the time and effort we have to put in to make the big projects a reality. As an illustration a couple of weeks ago we had a meeting with Lotus about their expansion planes. The team we fielded. Both Cabinet and Officers was highly credible and we made it clear we were “open for business” and there to help. The next meeting will be with their Director of Strategy. Our capability to operate at this level is an important factor in enabling the District to “punch above its weight”.
What many people do not realise is all the work of the council that operates routinely under the radar. So far in 2022 we have paid :
- £73 million supporting 13 different Covid Grant Schemes and reliefs to over 7000 Businesses
- £14.5 million in Housing Benefit to over 3000 households for those on the lowest incomes
- £6.8 million in Local Council Tax support to over 5500 households on the lowest incomes
- £473,000 to 947 cases applying for Test and Trace payments linked to COVID
Given the numbers above it is not difficult to imagine the positive impact on the residents of the District.
This is money that is transferred from central government that we then distribute. The team that works on this is incredibly effective and are some of the unsung heroes of the last 2 years. We do recognise their efforts.
