UK Politics

Sir Keir Starmer has promised “no more talking shops of the past” when he meets regional mayors and leaders of the devolved nations on Friday as part of his programme to transfer power away from Westminster.

But despite the rhetoric, some mayors are concerned Treasury officials are already putting the brakes on a project designed to give locals greater say over housing and adult education.

Downing Street said the meeting in Scotland is intended to bring together First Ministers John Swinney, Michelle O’Neill and Eluned Morgan; 11 English metro mayors; and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan to discuss “shared challenges” and “opportunities” to boost inward investment across the country.
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However, without spending clout there is a limit to what they can achieve, sources said. While the mayors broadly welcome how Sir Keir has promoted devolution, some say they are frustrated by the Treasury, which they say is hoarding power by putting national priorities for growth and jobs creation ahead of giving local leaders control.

“The Treasury is saying to the mayors, ‘This is the national strategy; we see you as just implementing our strategy,’” one mayor told [I]. “They don’t see it as devolution or, ‘You have control, and you decide.’ They just see us as a mechanism for delivering their national plans. And the mayors hate it.

“It’s not a fight yet, but there’s a big, very, assertive discussion going on at the minute about the strings that the Government is still trying to attach to all the pots of money that we’re going to get.”
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“It’s a Treasury orthodoxy issue rather than a political one with Angela [Rayner] or Rachel [Reeves].

“What’s the point of mayors, if you’re just basically going to tell us what to do and how to do it without giving us the freedom of having devolution? At the moment the mayors are not getting devolution, it’s decentralisation because it’s all linked to the national industrial strategy.”

The mayor said that “the Government rhetoric on devolution is really good, but they love central control. So how do you deliver devolution without giving us more control over jobs and skills or our local industrial strategy? Instead, you have a national industrial strategy, you have a national jobs plan.”