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Powerful, US-style ‘super-mayors' could be heading for Britain, under plans revealed this week by communities secretary, Eric Pickles. Mr Pickles told an audience of local government leaders and senior officials on 27 July that Parliament's forthcoming Decentralisation and Localism Bill would contain new powers for directly-elected mayors to combine their political leadership with the chief executive's role across their local authority. Mr Pickles attended the Local Government Association's ‘chairman's summit' this week, to answer questions on his wide-ranging devolution plans, following his final major speech before Parliament entered the summer recess period. Asked by Tony Egginton, directly-elected mayor of Mansfield DC, how he could guarantee frameworks through which council leaders could deliver ‘radical' local reforms, the secretary of state said: ‘This is the first time I've announced this, but I'm happy to. We'll be giving powers to combine your role with that of the chief executive within the law – [specifically] for elected mayors.' He later told The MJ: ‘Through the new Bill, elected mayors are going to have much more power.' CLG officials said new powers would not be forced on councils, but would allow ‘high-quality city leaders' to combine their strategic political leadership with day-to-day management of their authority's service delivery. The idea, Mr Pickles believes, is to make local, elected leaders more accountable to residents, and empowered to directly deliver changes within their town halls at service delivery level. The policy proposal is also in line with Mr Pickles' view that many more councils should adopt the ‘executive leader' model. Reacting to the announcement, Rob Whiteman, managing director of Local Government Improvement and a former council chief executive, said: ‘The idea of the chief executive as the directly-elected person is integral to the US model – it has worked well in some cities. Even the president of the US is technically the chief executive of the administration.' CLG officials will continue to work on the draft localism Bill – which will also contain a general power of competence – over the summer break. Mr Pickles also revealed to the LGA he was close to agreeing a succession of two-year finance settlements outlining what local government would receive from Whitehall over the course of the coalition government's fixed term. He indicated this could include grant reforms dictating new financial arrangements for policies such as local enterprise partnerships, house-building incentives, planning reform and, possibly, place-based budgeting. ‘I haven't made the final decision yet, but I might apply a two-year settlement from next year, and another for the two-year period after that,' Mr Pickles said. ‘In the second two-year settlement, I'll start the changes in the block grant and start to move it more towards enterprise. We're looking at neighbourhoods to be the recipient of that.' Signing off before parliamentary recess, Mr Pickles also indicated plans for place-based budgeting – dubbed Total Place under the Labour Government – were supported by prime minister, David Cameron, and chancellor, George Osborne. But he put the nail in the coffin of the Total Place banner by indicating ministers preferred to refer to ‘Community Budgets'. While urging local government to ‘seize' the opportunities created by his devolution agenda, Mr Pickles warned the LGA it should be covered by the same Freedom of Information laws as public bodies and urged Smith Square to follow councils' lead in publishing details of all spending above £500

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WHITEHALL

Pickles confirms rise of new 'super mayors'

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