LGA Governance


Agenda item

Agenda item

Minister of State for Cabinet Office (Cities and Constitution), The Rt Hon Greg Clark MP

Minutes:

Sir Richard Leese welcomed The Rt. Hon. Greg Clark MP, Minister of State for Cabinet Office (Cities and Constitution), to the meeting and invited him to address members.

 

The Minister spoke about the increasing consensus around returning powers to cities but acknowledged that policies have been slow to reflect that. Cities are a large source of economic potential and for the country to succeed, every city must succeed as well.

 

The Minister said that he has endeavoured to drive home recognition across Whitehall that every place is different, with different industries, histories, etc. and so they cannot be treated the same, as is Whitehall’s default approach. He therefore reminded the Board that they must consider when pushing their agenda not to present such uniformity across cities that it gives Whitehall an excuse to think that policy needs to be delivered uniformly.  Instead, emphasising the difference between places could bolster the case for local solutions. His advice would be to resist the urge to make devolution a purely constitutional issue as this would be likely to hold up progress. The Minister urged members to support colleagues that are undertaking unique projects that are not being done in other cities, and to champion these.

 

The Minister also highlighted the opportunity the Board presents for members to share best practice. He advised that the LGA should do more to raise the profile of city successes since these are insufficiently known in Whitehall.

 

Lastly, the Minister said that his ambition is to carry on doing what has already been started, but with greater pace and success. He expressed his hope that he would be able to return to address the Board at another meeting in the future.

 

Members raised the following points:

 

·         City regions are keen to work with Greg Clark to progress this agenda and increase support within Whitehall for local devolution.

·         The debate also needs to be about financial devolution and take into account the fiscal position of city regions.

·         Other city regions should be provided the scale of devolution offered to London.

·         There is a need to harness enthusiasm for devolution in the private sector.

 

Members also sought clarity on the Growth Deals negotiation process. The Minister indicated that he is going through the Strategic Economic Plans submitted by Local Enterprise Partnerships at the end of March.  He has found the SEPs greatly improved since the first drafts, but anticipates about 2 to 3 more months of work to confirm commitments and priorities.  He hopes to announce the first allocations from the Local Growth Fund for 2015-16 in July, after which discussions will begin on the following years.

 

Sir Richard thanked the Minister for attending and offering to speak again, and summarised some of the key points of the discussion. He also told the Minister that the LGA would like to work with officials in the Cabinet Office on some of these issues, and the Minister agreed.

 

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