Your say / Politics
‘The challenge to the mayor is to go further and faster’
This week, the Treasury announced a £15.6bn package as part of its Transport for City Regions settlement.
However, just £752m of this will be spent in the West of England – under 5 per cent. The largest city regions, such as Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, are receiving an eye-watering £2.5bn and £2.4bn respectively.
Even the smaller city region of the Tees Valley is receiving a £978m settlement, dwarfing the offering to our region on a per-person basis – despite our status as a net-contributor to the nation’s finances.
Once again, we in the West of England aren’t getting the fair share that we deserve.
This is a legacy of the previous metro mayors – an invisible Tory and his all-too-visible Labour successor.
Their failure to build consensus with other local leaders, build a regional transport vision and to sufficiently develop projects so that they were “shovel ready”, has led to us being short-changed again.
During the previous mayor’s term, the Combined Authority slipped into turmoil with public rows and high-profile resignations.
In May, we were told a vote for another Labour mayor would unlock opportunities with the new Labour Government.
Helen Godwin was elected as the new mayor of the West of England Combined Authority on May 1 – photo: Karen Johnson
The truth is that the new mayor, Helen Godwin, has her work cut out to build up the reputation of the region in the eyes of the Government and to develop the credible plans needed to attract the investment we so desperately need.
Positively, she has already started to rebuild relationships with other leaders in the region.
Her appointment of the Lib Dem leader of Bath and North East Somerset Council as deputy mayor was a welcome statement of intent about the way she wishes to work.
As chair of Bristol’s Economy and Skills Policy Committee, I will also do what I can to work collaboratively with colleagues across political and local authority boundaries.
Change isn’t going to come overnight, or easily, but there are shorter-term changes that could also be pursued in tandem with developing and delivering the more complex schemes.
For example, Bristol Liberal Democrats have long supported introducing bus franchising – where the Combined Authority would determine routes, frequency and cost of buses.
The Government says they want to make this easier too, and this is something that could be progressed while other plans are developed.
This week, the Treasury announced a £15.6bn package as part of its Transport for City Regions settlement – photo: Rhiannon Lodato
But the main prize remains a mass transit system.
One of the mayor’s key focuses must be on obtaining quick agreement on the way forward for this – closing the chapter on squabbles about the merits of trams versus underground systems.
This week’s settlement must be a downpayment on a deliverable scheme because while the announcement of transport funding is welcome, it could have been so much better for our region.
The challenge to the mayor, Local Authority leaders and others is to work together to go further, faster, so we can get our fair share in future funding settlements.
This is an opinion piece by Andrew Brown, the Liberal Democrat councillor for Hengrove & Whitchurch Park and chair of Bristol City Council’s Economy & Skills Policy Committee
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Main photo: Martin Booth
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