Umunna pushes devolution agenda

Chuka Umunna, the shadow business secretary, has once again stressed the importance of devolving powers from Westminster to cities across the country.

Writing in the New Statesman, Umunna outlined that two factors (each with its own two strands), specialism and growth and democracy and trust, are the cornerstone of cities’ effectiveness. He argued that the only way to encourage growth in both( specialisms and democracy ). Whitehall must be willing to hand powers to local authorities. He said that currently “the country is too centralised”, and that in response the Labour leadership“will put forward the most radical set of plans to devolve power to English cities and regions in a generation at next year’s General Election.” Already on the policy table in this regard is Miliband’s pledge to give devolve £20 billion to cities and regions.

Crucially, Umunna said that any further devolution policies that Labour announce would not be uniform. He explained that the leadership realised “different regions and cities will want to develop in their own way, at their own pace, and according to local conditions. So government needs to be versatile in its dealings with sub-national authorities to smooth the transition to local control. 

At the core of his piece is an argument for: “‘devo-fault’ –  shift of the burden of evidence from decentralisation to centralisation.” Because, he says “our assumption should be: wherever there is a case to devolve power, you should require a very good reason to say no.”