The Adonis review isn’t sexy – but it could rebuild cities, renew communities and change lives

Tonight, Jon Cruddas – who has been in the limelight more than he’d probably like in the last 48 hours – is giving a speech to the RSA (of which more later). His criticism of complex Labour policy often emerging as simplistic headlines was one I couldn’t help but agree with – as annoyed as I was that he’d been caught saying it. Yet I doubt that Cruddas will be repeating his criticisms tonight – because this morning there’s an announcement that might allay some of his concerns.

The Adonis Review – a key plank of Cruddas’s policy review – reports back today, with an unveiling in Leeds. We’ve already reported on much of the detail of the announcement. As you’d expect from someone as thoughtful as Andrew Adonis, it’s a serious piece of work. There’s nothing “cynical” about it. This is no “policy nugget”. In fact, devolving £30 billion worth of government funding on housing, transport and infrastructure – as well as a bigger share of business rates – is about as far from a “cynical nuggets of policy” as you can get. Instead, it’s a serious attempt to answer serious structural problems with the British economy – primarily, that London’s growth crowds out all other regions of the UK.

The weighty report’s headline recommendation is that the proceeds of growth from business rates should be turned over to the local areas in which that growth is generated – encouraging regions with the carrot of funding and investment, and incentivising regional growth. It’s not a sexy headline, it’s not going to be making it onto the front pages of any newspapers, and it may not shift that many votes. The electorate are unlikely to marching down to the polling station crying “For Labour! For Combined Authorities!”.

And yet this is exactly the sort of serious policy thinking that can rebuild cities, renew communities and change lives.

The gap between London and elsewhere is growing by the day – and yet the vast proportion of decisions that impact on your life are taken in London, regardless of whether you live there or not. People feel alienated from the decisions taken about their lives, and the decision makers can often fail to grasp the particular issues at play on the ground. The Adonis review builds on a simple principle that both Miliband and Cruddas have been pushing over the last year – that the best place to make the decisions that effect your local area is in your local area.

Actually – that’s not a bad slogan. Maybe, if handled right, this could swing a few votes after all…