Elected mayors should receive greater powers, enabling them to take difficult decisions which support economic growth, a new joint report by think tanks, the Institute for Government (IfG) and Centre for Cities, suggests.
Entitled Big shot or long shot? the report calls for the Localism Bill to allow cities to choose the appropriate mayoral model for their local economy. Strong and effective mayors can, it states, also help cities navigate the complicated web of relationships with the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) and integrated transport authorities (ITAs), bodies which mayors should co-chair.
Some cities would benefit from a ‘metro mayor’ governing a wider geographic boundary capturing the natural economic limits of the area. Adapted from the London mayoral model, they should be granted additional strategic powers over transport, planning and skills to drive local economic growth.
Launching the report in Birmingham, Lord Adonis, director of the IfG, drew on his experience as transport secretary, where he witnessed the transformative power of the mayor of London to drive the Crossrail project and congestion charge.
Lord Adonis also said the Localism Bill’s timeline was ‘too protracted’, and that those among the 11 major cities voting in favour of the system should hold mayoral elections next autumn, rather than 2013.
