Last week's Convention of the North - the annual jamboree of the great and the good in northern civic life – opened with an attempt to inject some much-needed cheer into the political and economic gloom of a long January.
Andy Burnham's call from the stage was for a ‘new politics' and a ‘new story' that will enable northern leaders to have more control over the economic levers of power: transport, skills, health and social care. After a few quiet years, it feels as if devolution is back on the agenda and gaining momentum, with the establishment of the new North East Devolution Deal signed recently and the York and North Yorkshire devolution agreement waiting in the wings.
These are important new governance structures, with the potential to take back control from Westminster, bringing decision making closer to businesses, public services and citizens. There is, however, more work to be done – as the Convention made clear. If devolution is going to be on the cutting edge of British democracy, we need much greater visible diversity, not least amongst combined authority mayors. There are also important questions about accountability, particularly around the need to grow awareness of what devolution is and how the decisions placed in the power of regions impact on people's lives.
However, realising a new kind of north also presents an opportunity. Imagine a north where we took pride in the amount of wealth shared amongst ourselves, rather than simply accumulated by a lucky few. Where smaller towns, cities and rural areas were able to see the direct benefits of public and private investment, just as the big cities do. This could be a north where all public sector partners recognise the economic power they hold as employers, investors and asset holders. Recognising that power could unleash a new turbo-charged approach to economic development where combined and local authorities intervene to increase the flow of existing and new wealth into the communities who need it most.
This isn't the piecemeal approach of levelling up, where local authorities are forced to go cap in hand to Westminster. Instead, combined and local authorities could get organised, building their relationships with fellow public service providers in health, policing, education and skills and exploring opportunities to work together towards a common goal of making life in our places better for everyone. This collaboration of the willing could take decisive action when the challenges mount, whilst maintaining an ambition for positive change longer term. To do so would require an honesty and a confidence, to speak openly about poverty, destitution, business failure and the lack of hope experienced by many in our communities.
However, to make this happen requires a commitment to action. It requires a government which recognises and is prepared to invest in the basics: decent public services which are not left so under resourced that they lurch from one crisis to another; local authority budgets with long term certainty and where the most vulnerable can be supported, rather than subject to the vagaries of the market; funding for initiatives like levelling up, shared prosperity funds and so on. Not only that, but for the investment to be meaningful, it must be properly decentralised, so that regional and local leaders alongside their place-based partners are taking the decisions, rather than civil servants with a shaky grasp of geography.
Devolution is never a done deal but a work in progress. As the new chapter of devolution to combined authorities in the north unfolds, we have an opportunity to make economic change meaningful, inclusive and accessible. But this also requires thinking differently about the economic model from the bottom up.
Sarah Longlands is chief executive of the national organisation for local economies (CLES)
@CLESthinkdo
