Labour pledge to devolve £30bn over five years

Ed Balls, Shadow Chancellor, will today lay out Labour’s five-year devolution plan, which centres around devolving £30billion to local authorities.

Under these plans, local authorities will be given control over funding for housing, transport and employment – among other policy areas.

Alongside this devolution pledge, Balls will announce that Labour would enable those city and county regions that have come together to form combined authorities to retain 100% of any business rates created by addition growth.  He will go on to outline that this will be available to all areas, not just those that choose to have an elected Mayor.

Balls has made this announcement, and published Labour’s plan, ahead of a meeting of the party’s new English Regional Shadow Cabinet today, which is made up local council leaders and leaders of combined authorities. Balls explained the reasoning behind Labour’s proposals:

“Too many parts of our country are being left behind by the Tories. Labour’s economic plan is about ensuring every part of the country and all working people can benefit from economic recovery, not just a few.

“This means backing the cities, towns and regions of our country which are the engines of growth and job creation.

“So the next Labour government and a Labour Treasury will deliver the biggest devolution of economic power and funding to England’s city and county regions for generations. Our plans to devolve £30 billion of funding over a Parliament will be at the heart of Labour’s first Spending Review.

“We want to see not just a Northern powerhouse, but Midlands, Eastern and Southern powerhouses too. We will not only back our great cities, but our towns and county regions too. Not just urban areas, but also rural areas.

“Local areas will be in the driving seat on key decisions affecting their local economies – with new powers over back-to-work schemes, to drive house building, and to integrate, invest in and plan transport infrastructure. And we will also let city and county regions keep all the additional business rates revenue generated by growth.

“Labour’s radical plans go much further than anything David Cameron and George Osborne are offering. The Tories scrapped the regional development agencies, cut funding more deeply in more deprived areas and have totally failed to rebalance the economy.

“And unlike the Tories, we won’t short-change areas which choose not to have an elected Mayor by giving them a second-class deal. Every part of England will benefit from Labour’s plans, not just a chosen few.”