An elected mayor is no magic wand – but it’s a start

Last week, Birmingham Chamber of Commerce took the unprecedented step of actively endorsing a political campaign. Sending out a quarter of a million leaflets and over 3,000 letters, the Birmingham Chamber urged the city to vote yes to a directly elected mayor when it goes to the polls on 3 May. Is this another sign of the insidious creep of business into politics, or is it a refreshing change and a sign of leadership?

There may well be those who plump for the first of these, but the more savvy and switched-on will see it for what it is: an endorsement of a policy which could have the same effect on the political landscape as devolution did at the beginning of the century.

Having a directly elected mayor, not just in Birmingham, but in any of the other nine other cities across England with referenda, has the potential to shape local government outside London in a way that hasn’t been done in decades, perhaps even centuries. It offers real leadership, visible to the people who live in the city and a single point of contact and decision for those wishing to do business there.

There will be some who will argue that that’s precisely why we should be against elected mayors: all that power, vested in just one individual. Yet this belies the reality of the situation and, a cynical person might suggest, adds more than a touch of smoke and mirrors.

An elected mayor will be supported and advised by a cabinet of people plucked from the council’s own ranks. The idea that he or she will be riding rough-shod over that advice is laughable, even with the strongest of characters in the role. Take, for example, Ken Livingstone. By his own admission, he is a much more consensual politician having been Mayor of London. No push-over, certainly, but prepared to listen to advice and to take it.

That said, everyone knows who the decision-maker is, who makes the call – and they also know who to hold to account. Could the same be said in our major cities outside London? Too many of them are in some kind of political stasis, either hung, built on wobbly coalitions or in the hands of a single party for years on end. Who provides the leadership, the vision in those cities?

By throwing their weight behind the yes campaign, that is what the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce is seeking. Without leadership and vision, cities will stagnate. There will be no growth, no innovation. There will be no regeneration or inward investment. The brightest and the best young people in those cities will continue to head for London, or even abroad, because they won’t see enough of a future in their hometown.

Wouldn’t it be great if, instead, the brightest and the best in London moved to Birmingham or Bristol or Leeds because there was more opportunity, more of a future there?

An elected mayor is no magic wand. He or she won’t be able to solve every issue that a city faces, certainly not in a single term. But, by standing above the political maelstrom and having a mandate direct from the people, they can make a start. And that is why the Birmingham of Chamber of Commerce has taken this leap of faith.

Jo Tanner is the Director of the Campaign for Directly Elected Mayors