The government wants all parts of England to have elected mayors, who will exercise strategic powers in their Mayoral Strategic Authorities and sit in a Council of the Regions and Nations alongside ministers.
Mayoral Strategic Authorities are not another layer of local government and will not compromise the independent authority of local councils. Their purpose is to exercise at a regional level some of the key strategic functions currently exercised from London by national government.
The leaders of councils across the Thames Valley have been discussing for many months whether to bid to be included in the next round of applications to become a Mayoral Strategic Authority.
We all began our discussions with considerable reservations about concentrating so much power in the hands of one individual. But we have been reassured by the requirement that mayors must work with and through a cabinet made up of representatives of all the councils in the Mayoral Strategic Authority area.
The leaders, furthermore, all recognise that a Mayoral Strategic Authority gives us the opportunity for a stronger regional voice at national level. That stronger voice is needed for the Thames Valley, as there is a very real danger that its role as a powerhouse of the UK economy is taken for granted by central government.
For the Thames Valley to continue to contribute so impressively to the UK economy, regional infrastructure constraints need to be addressed. A Mayoral Strategic Authority is the best way to lever in the investment that can help us to address those infrastructure constraints.
The financial opportunities are important with so many councils in the Thames Valley, including Wokingham, set to lose significant government funding in the three-year local authority finance settlement. Mayoral Strategic Authorities provide a route to money that would otherwise be unavailable to us.
Nor is that money just government money; there are also greater opportunities to attract inward investment by private bodies that want to engage at a regional rather than council level.
The leaders of the Thames Valley councils – Liberal Democrat, Labour, and Conservative – view the potential prize as great and believe that refusing to participate is very unwise.
The Government’s ambition to have all parts of England in a Mayoral Strategic Authority is crystal clear. If we refuse to engage in the process, we will sooner or later have a Mayoral Strategic Authority imposed upon us without our having the chance to shape it to realise the ambitions and meet the needs of our communities.
Better, in our collective view, to enter the process early rather than wait. If we delay engaging with the government we risk being at the back of the queue when it comes to attracting resources, both public and private.
The leaders of councils in our Thames Valley region will therefore over the next few weeks be seeking the agreement of their respective councils to proceed to the submission of an Expression of Interest in joining the government’s programme for delivering Mayoral Strategic Authorities across all England.
This is not an irreversible step. An Expression of Interest does not commit any council to more than engaging with the government about a potential Mayoral Strategic Authority. To refuse to take this first step would be to miss a great opportunity, which is why I hope submission of the Expression of Interest will receive cross-party support at Wokingham’s council meeting at the end of this month.
By Cllr Stephen Conway
