Your say / Politics
‘The next West of England mayor must deliver for the place rather than for their party’
In a few days, the West of England will have a new mayor.
The good news is that the West of England economy is a very dynamic economy – chock full of hi-tech firms and well-paid jobs – and one that is primed for further growth. Lots of other mayors would love to have the economic assets that the new mayor will have.
The bad news is the strains of the economic success that region has enjoyed for the last decade or so are increasingly on show: congested roads, expensive housing and skills shortages.
This is bad not only for productivity and growth reasons but also for equity and accessibility reasons.
This creates a huge opportunity for the next mayor of the West of England to make a difference.
But making the most of the economic assets that the region has and tackling the challenges of economic growth and success will require the new mayor to work in a different way to the previous mayors.
First, the new mayor will need to build constructive and robust relationships and working arrangements with the local authorities that make up the combined authority.
To be polite, this has not always been the case under previous mayoralties.
The need to build robust and productive relationships also applies to the business, university and civic communities.
Lessons can be learned from mayors elsewhere – for example West Yorkshire’s Tracy Brabin and South Yorkshire’s Oliver Coppard – in how to strike the balance between building a collaborative approach with the local authorities whilst also providing leadership and clarity of vision and delivery that others can follow.
Second, it will mean taking difficult decisions around housebuilding – delivering many more homes than has been done previously; and transport – taking control of the bus system as has been done in Greater Manchester.
Again, previous administrations have talked about these issues but have not implemented meaningful policies to address them.
There is a growing, hard-won consensus across the West of England area that these are the big issues that need to be addressed. The challenge for the mayor will be turning this consensus into a programme of delivery.
Third, the new mayor will need to raise the profile and reputation of the region and the combined authority in Whitehall and Westminster.
At the moment, the region is largely ignored, or at best barely thought about, when the government is thinking about regional investment and devolution.
The new mayor will need to focus on how to best engage with national politics and decision-makers.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham and former West Midlands mayor Andy Street are serious figures, who have successfully positioned their places at the centre of national conversations around growth, net zero and investment.
They have been able to offer credible and exciting opportunities for national government to invest in.
The challenge for the new mayor will be to show that the West of England has solutions that can deliver for the place and also help the UK solve its pressing problems – not least flat-lining growth and the need for revenue to invest in public services.
Fortunately for the new mayor, the combined authority – under new executive leadership – has very capable staff and has already significantly improved its relationship and standing with central government, including having its best value notice lifted.
Whitehall is now more willing to listen and engage with the region’s case for attention and investment, but it will need proactive political leadership from the mayor to take up this opportunity.
With successive government’s placing ever more emphasis on devolution and metro mayors to channel funding and support, this is a potentially defining moment for future of the West of England.
Often, local elections can just be a reflection of general national sentiment, but in a mayoral election for a region as important as the West of England, voting for the candidate who can best deliver for the place rather than the one wearing the appropriately coloured rosette really does matter.
This is an opinion piece by Andrew Carter, chief executive of Centre for Cities, a think tank dedicated to improving the economies of the UK’s largest cities and towns
Main photo: Martin Booth
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