The Budget finally came. And it was big – Labour will, initially at least, be the party of tax, spend and substantial investment, which is vital for rebuilding our crumbling foundations.
But the chancellor was adamant that such a hefty fiscal loosening to support public investment and such a large increase in tax to support day-to-day public spending will need to be a one-off. It is a trick that cannot be repeated – a necessary downpayment for a decade of national renewal to deliver economic opportunity for all people and places. It must now be matched with equally bold reforms to ensure investment is well directed and public services are more efficient and preventative.
The Budget committed to an initial 10% real terms funding increase for local government through a mixture of grant funding, SEND provision, Shared Prosperity Fund money and homelessness prevention
Rachel Reeves has provided the necessary fiscal firepower, but transformation will be delivered through programmes that have been kickstarted across Government, including industrial strategy, devolution, planning, and healthcare reform. While strong strategic direction from the centre is crucial, the policy innovations to drive meaningful progress will come from the bottom up, not the top down. The good news is that evidence so far suggests Government is willing to embed a more mature, two-way partnership between the centre and our cities, regions and towns.
Local government spending and devolution are, for instance, key pillars of what the Government is calling phase 2 of the Spending Review. The highly-anticipated Devolution White Paper will set this out in further detail, but the expansion of the single-pot settlements for mayoral combined authorities is a big deal, as is moving to multi-year finance settlements for local government and consolidation of funding streams based on need. Crucially, Government is already putting its money where its mouth is, demonstrating that local government will be a priority. The Budget committed to an initial 10% real terms funding increase for local government through a mixture of grant funding, SEND provision, Shared Prosperity Fund money and homelessness prevention.
Local areas and regions must be at the forefront of leading the way forward. By bringing economic and social levers to bear on key challenges and demonstrating how integration of public services in partnership with communities can drive better outcomes in health, care and education, to drive growth. By revealing how investment can be channelled into place-based sectoral strengths and infrastructure for the benefit of communities. And by local and regional government working to scale-up innovations and systems that are working where there is clear focus on economic opportunity.
The Centre for Progressive Policy's Inclusive Growth Network of 14 authorities has been leading the way, translating inclusive growth from theory to practice across the UK. The network has a growing bank of good practice in local and regional inclusive growth – whether showcasing employment charters in Greater Manchester, supporting the delivery of employment services for adults with learning disabilities in Barking and Dagenham, enabling childcare innovations and pilots in Liverpool City Region, or helping Cardiff Council deliver inclusive regeneration.
As a go-to peer-to-peer learning network, it is also able to help places learn what works and how to implement new initiatives and approaches. There is now a major opportunity for collaborative networks such as this to drive fresh innovation and influence the shape and speed of devolution.
We should not of course sugarcoat the current state of play. As our recent report with Core Cities and Metro Dynamics showed, the UK is the opposite of a preventive state at the moment given cuts to children's services, public health budgets and youth services. And as our latest report in partnership with Local Trust shows, some 2.3 million people currently live in neighbourhoods where more than half the adult population are out of work with very high levels of ill health.
These will be hard trends to shift. But with an enabling and empowering centre of government, keen to scale best practice ideas from the bottom up, not just impose from the top down, we have an opportunity to deliver real change. This can be the Parliament for local and regional innovators. We should grasp the opportunity with both hands.
Ben Franklin is interim CEO at the Centre for Progressive Policy
