Move on mayors and finance system
Author: Local Government Chronicle |
A re-elected Labour government would allow the introduction of London-style city region mayors in conurbations like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham and would set up another commission to consider the future of local government finance.
The party’s manifesto – published on Monday morning – included details of the new local government policies alongside others on wider public services.
On city-regions, the manifesto pledges to give local people a referendum on whether to introduce a mayor.
“Where new city-region authorities are created, we will give residents the opportunity to trigger a referendum for directly electing a mayor with London-style powers,” the manifesto reads. And while it pledges to keep in place council tax capping and rules out any revaluation for the next Parliament, is says: “We will establish a cross-party commission to review the future of local government finance too ensure it is meeting our goals of accountability, equity and efficiency across the country.”
Proposals in the manifesto for the takeover or merger of failing public services were well trailed. Where a police force or local Basic Command Unit is judged to be consistently failing local people, either the borough commander or chief constable will be replaced or a neighbouring force or BCU will take over the provision of services.