The future of regions The latest report by the New Local Government Network into the regional economic agenda deserves close reading, for a variety of reasons. First, its co-authors include Ed Balls – once the ‘deputy chancellor’, and now economic secretary to the Treasury – and John Healey, another rising star, and currently financial secretary to the Treasury. Both have the ear of the chancellor and hence, probably the next prime minister. And both, in their report, which they co-wrote with the NLGN’s Chris Leslie, make it quite clear that in their view, the regional agenda in England is anything but dead, whatever the voters said in referendums. In fact, they insist that the drive to reduce economic and social disparities in England has been, and must continue to be, led by the RDAs. Nor do they see much scope for city regions, and especially not directly-elected city region mayors, even though both continue to be on the David Miliband/Ruth Kelly agenda. Their argument is that city regions will simply be dominated by their biggest city, namely, the core cities, and that others will be left in the shade and grow resentful. The RDAs, on the other hand, they believe, have a genuinely regional remit, without dependence on the regional capital, and the inference is they are therefore better placed to deliver the key economic agenda of a Brown Government. The authors accept, however, that the RDAs have no democratic validity. They dismiss the current assemblies as being without real power, note that the legal powers to create elected assemblies still lie on the statute books, and suggest that maybe a Lords filled with council leaders and assembly representatives might fill the scrutiny gap left by the ‘no’ votes in the three northern regions. It is clear the authors feel the referendum results were more a protest against the Government and another tier of politicians, than a vote against regional government. So, watch this space. A Gordon Brown administration will regard local government’s prime role as delivering its economic and social agenda. The report makes it clear that this role will be backed by RDAs, not city regions, and that the regional agenda is not dead, but in temporary hibernation.
