Levelling up cannot truly succeed without allowing elected local leaders to fund and deliver solutions to their own challenges, according to the chancellor.
Set out in the Spring Budget, Jeremy Hunt's plans include better focused Investment Zones centred around a local university, transferring the functions of local enterprise partnerships to local government, and more financial autonomy for mayors – starting in the West Midlands and Greater Manchester.
But what are the risks of removing or diluting the economic development work done by districts, and shifting responsibilities and powers further towards mayoral areas, including new Combined County Authorities (CCAs)?
Enterprising former chief executive Frank McArdle, who has just retired as chief executive of South Derbyshire DC after more than two decades in the top role, can speak with authority on this.
He tells The MJ: ‘It's about not losing that [local] knowledge and the only way you won't lose it is through the governance of the new combined authorities having an acknowledgement for the voting role that boroughs and districts can play in shaping their communities, because they are closer to the people. And if you lose that in the governance then it's just pot luck whether it trickles down.'
He continues: ‘If residents elect people to represent them, make sure you can give the resources to them to represent what those people want, because the higher you go, the more remote you are from what people need.'
There are broadly drafted provisions within the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill now at the committee stage in the House of Lords enabling borough and district councils to be represented on the board of a CCA. But it remains to be seen if the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities will put restrictions on these apparent freedoms.
Mr McArdle's former district is within an area that is on a journey towards devolution. Announced last year, the East Midlands deal – for Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, Derby and Derbyshire – will create the first CCA. A recent consultation across the four areas revealed that most respondents did not favour an elected mayor. But if the East Midlands CCA gets the go-ahead in the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill, that will come with a mayor, along with £1.14bn in funding over the next 30 years.
His council's members do not see South Derbyshire benefiting from a CCA, he says. ‘They say the £1.14bn over 30 years equates to £38m a year, which comes down to the population base at about £17.40 per person, which is not index linked as far as we can tell.
‘My authority takes the view that why would you put above the authority another tier of government that would itself pass a cost burden onto the taxpayer?' He underlines that this is what the members feel. ‘I don't have a personal view on political matters by law.'
Any ability to get funding to bring economic investment, inward investment and growth into a more local area has got to be good, he adds.
‘South Derbyshire have been doing that for the 23 years I've been chief executive without any help from anybody.'
He is the poster chief executive for a successful district entrepreneurial approach. Just before he took over in the top role the council was broke. ‘We were £2.1m in deficit, with an unbalanced budget and a notice from the Government saying they were going to take us over in eight weeks. They asked me if I would be an interim chief executive. I was head of law and administration then. My God, I had eight weeks to do something.'
Initially faced with making 48 people redundant, he crafted a plan that made seven people redundant, and he cut his own salary by £10,000. He says: ‘If you believe in local government you do the bloody right thing.' To say he is not a fan of a culture of entitlement is an understatement.
He put together a four-year plan to stabilise finances, and invested his considerable energies in an ‘open for business strapline', with inward investment as the focus, helped by an abundance of brownfield land.
He says he can ‘understand why a combined authority would say there's money coming in for inward investment and development, [but] we've been doing this for 23 years'.
Before the pandemic the unemployment rate in South Derbyshire was 0.8%, ‘and our GDP on manufacturing and construction was in the early 20 per cents. In this country it's now 10.2% or something like that'.
A number of significant business successes have been notched up over the years, including bringing in Toyota with an investment of £771m, and other companies who have moved in include JCB, JD Wetherspoon and McDonalds.
He points out that South Derbyshire could build houses in a planned way on brownfield sites to support living and working in the district, meaning that ‘unemployment was never going to be an issue, and we can attract people with skills from Birmingham, Nottingham and Stoke and bring them in to live and work in the area'.
The council also partners with housing associations. ‘I give them the land, they give me the houses. I'm growing my council house stock – 60 or 70 in the last 18 months to two years by partnering with people who can build for us. The council has kept its stock and replenished and improved it.'
He will not be slowing down that much in retirement, unsurprisingly. He is taking on a role with Solace to mentor and coach other chief executives, and he is hoping to add in some of that open for business spirit.
His final message is for leadership to hold on to the aspects that make an area unique. ‘If you lose that sense of place then you are at risk of becoming someplace, somewhere, anywhere.'
