Mayors “energetic” about increasing scrutiny for Mayoral Combined Authorities given ‘trailblazer deals’, Gove claims
The Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, Michael Gove, has said the mayors of the West Midlands Combined Authority and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Andy Street and Andy Burnham, want to have a greater level of scrutiny and accountability for their offices.
Speaking to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee yesterday (22 March), the Secretary of State suggested the two mayors, who recently signed 'trailblazer deals' to acquire further powers and funding, wished to have open public sessions where they can be "cross-examined".
Answering questions from the cross-party committee, Gove said: "In the case of the trailblazer deals that we have in the West Midlands and in Greater Manchester, both the mayors there have been energetic in saying that they want to have an even greater degree of accountability, including having open public sessions where they can be cross-examined by locally elected representatives, members of the media and others."
Under the trailblazer deals, the two combined authorities will be handed new powers over local transport, employment, housing, innovation and Net Zero priorities. Both Greater Manchester and the West Midlands will also be able to retain 100% of their business rates.
News of the deals came last week (15 March) as part of the Government's Spring Budget statement, which also revealed that the Government intends to provide Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs) with single multi-year funding settlements at the next Spending Review.
During the committee meeting, Gove also noted that the Government's preference is to devolve power to areas that already have a mayor. "The more power that is devolved, the greater the need for accountability and having a directly elected leader or mayor provides the maximum level of transparency and accountability."
But he accepted that there would be some areas where mayoral combined authorities "won't work".
"I'm a pragmatist and an empirical developer of policy. So we can see over time, the model being more and more successful, but by definition, there will be some communities and areas who say we don't want that."
Andy Burnham called the trailblazer deal the "deepest" devolution deal with the Government that he has agreed to date. "This deal takes devolution in the city-region further and faster than ever before, giving us more ability to improve the lives of people who live and work here," he said.
However, he added that with more power "comes the need for great accountability and I welcome the strengthened arrangements announced in the deal.
"While we didn't get everything we wanted from the deal, we will continue to engage with Government on those areas in the future. For now, our focus will be on getting ready to take on the new powers and be held to account on the decisions we will be making on behalf of the people of Greater Manchester. Today is a new era for English devolution."
Adam Carey
