Metro mayors are now central to delivering the Government's growth agenda. The chancellor's Mais Lecture made that clear: if the UK is to close its productivity gap, it will be done in its big city-regions – and metro mayors are the vehicles to deliver it.
That shift is sensible. Growth is inherently place-based. Transport systems, labour markets, innovation networks, and housing supply all operate at the city-region scale. Over the past decade, mayoral combined authorities (MCAs) have shown they can deliver, particularly in transport.
