The leader of Westminster City Council has written to new Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to rethink how London is governed, arguing that boroughs and the Mayor should jointly steer a shared growth strategy for the capital rather than operating separately.
In an open letter, Cllr Paul Swaddle points to Burnham's record leading Greater Manchester as evidence that city-regional partnerships between mayors and local councils can work and calls for a similar ‘combined authority-style’ model to be applied to London.
He stresses this shouldn't mean simply handing more power from Whitehall to City Hall but building a genuine partnership in which boroughs help shape decisions on housing, infrastructure, skills and high streets, rather than just implementing them.
The letter also sets out a wider four-point plan for growth, including reform of business rates, stronger enforcement powers against rogue traders, tighter regulation of short-term lets, and opposition to a proposed high-value council tax surcharge, which Swaddle warns would function as a Treasury levy disguised as a local tax.
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Swaddle frames the proposals as a call for national and London-wide growth to be treated as complementary rather than competing goals.
'These asks are practical, evidence-based and apolitical. They are about strengthening the UK’s growth engine, not defending one place at the expense of another,’ he writes.
‘Westminster wants Greater Manchester and every major city-region to succeed. But the route to a stronger national economy cannot be to diminish London. If the capital becomes less competitive, the whole country will feel the consequences through weaker tax receipts, lower investment, reduced visitor spending and a smaller global platform for UK business.’
