A new report published by FGF which is written in partnership with Metro Dynamics and funded by London Councils, has recommended that national government strengthens the changes they are making for strategic authorities to ensure they have the powers and the capacity to deliver for the 28 million people they serve.
The ‘Impactful Devolution 04, Stewards of the Regional System: Strengthening the foundations of strategic authorities’ report contains recommendations including:
- Strategic authorities should act as stewards for their regions with a stronger partnership across national, regional and local government to connect industrial strategy, infrastructure investment and housing investment.
- Strategic authorities need greater capacity and specialist capability to deliver for their regions on finance, investment and infrastructure, for example on land assembly and compulsory purchase.
- Government should move beyond integrated settlements towards ‘Total Place settlements’ giving greater fiscal flexibility than current integrated settlements, and use a funding model which pools resources across public services (rather than separate budgets, i.e. local government, health, policing etc)
- Strategic authorities need greater fiscal devolution to deliver economic growth and need new powers to raise revenue to drive growth and infrastructure investment on a regional basis.
- Strategic authorities should be more publicly accountable with a regional public accounts committee, with more direct public and community involvement.