‘I don’t know if it will work,’ he said, but ‘I’m damn well going to try’. Thus George Osborne announced his dramatic move on devolution and business rates last week. After decades of pleas for more local control, local government got what it wished for.
The sting in the tail is the ending of central grant and concern about how areas without a thriving commercial sector are likely to perform.
Will business-rich councils in individual regions help less prosperous or dormitory-like neighbours? There are going to be winners and losers, even with some reduced re-distribution. London will benefit, but what happens to secondary cities in the Midlands, the North and especially the North East? We have to wait and see.
