Can Glasgow and Edinburgh follow Greater Manchester's lead?

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

One issue concerning Scottish city-regions, however, is the governance arrangements needed to sustain them. South of the border, Greater Manchester is widely held up as the poster child for the localist turn in sub-national English governance, and the prominence and convening power of Andy Burnham, the directly elected mayor, is now widely cited.
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This has led to a recent flurry of media and advocacy concerning the need for directly elected mayors, and combined authority arrangements, here in Scotland. The argument seems to be that, if it works for Greater Manchester, then it will (hopefully) work for the Glasgow city-region too.
This is supported by the UK Government position that accountable mayors in England give confidence for further devolution and provide the basis through which to develop new 'local growth plans'.
One UK minister considers the mayoral model as a 'good idea', though for 'people in Scotland to decide'. Recent comparisons with Greater Manchester have been drawn by another minister, suggesting that Glasgow is missing out on an economic dividend.
Adoption of directly elected mayors warrants a few reflections. First, we should consider that directly elected mayors for Scottish city-regions would be advocating in two directions – to both the UK and Scottish governments.
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If we consider innovation policy in the Glasgow city-region, for example, we can see direct UK Government investments (innovation accelerator), Scottish Government initiatives (tech scalars), and joint developments (investment zones). This makes the operating environment for a mayor somewhat more complex.
Second, we may consider what evidence we have on the impacts of mayors driving economic change in other localities, and this does not appear to be clear cut.
John Tomaney from UCL previously noted that the argument for mayors has rested on 'more or less persuasive anecdotes drawn principally from the US experience and the limited experience in London'.
Greater Manchester has experienced radical change in many senses, however, relative to the Glasgow city-region, transformation is yet to clearly appear in the productivity data. Of course, we may need more time to see such productivity change, and it should be noted that the mayor still works within a very centralised arrangement there (despite the steps made).
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Third, we could perhaps start to consider the fundamental building blocks of effective urban governance. Arguably, this can be considered in terms of accountability, capacity and direction.
Accountability relates to those who provide resource and those who experience the policy impacts. Capacity relates to the ability to manage at a city-region level a greater range of tools and policies. Direction relates to the fact that city-regions cannot do everything, so objectives need to be set that can be plausibly delivered against (localities in the UK have few powers compared with localities in other jurisdictions).
Add to that trio the need to build city-region identities over the long run through bottom-up change; arguably, indeed, this is the key lesson from Greater Manchester.
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Together, this gives a set of principles by which to consider if a mayor, or strengthened city-region working in another form, would offer advantages in service of further city-region devolution.
None of the above seeks to divert attention from other concerns, such as transitions to net zero, which have a particular regional imprint, or the prospects for our rural economies; simply, the governance futures for city-regions in Scotland warrants a concerted focus.
There is a concern that our city-regions risk being somewhat stuck between differing UK Government and Scottish Government developments, with only piecemeal attempts at co-ordination between them. If the debates about Scottish city-regions fail to become anything more than a political football, the prospects for the Scottish economy will be diminished in turn.
David Waite, School of Social & Political Sciences, University of Glasgow.