Our centralised economy © Baron Frankal
Like everyone else, despite the overdrawn bank account, madly polluting plane and guilt for mass tourism as a rather distasteful type of mass consumerism, I love my holidays. This year we did it properly, with a fortnight in and around Barcelona. It’s an amazing city, and an inspiration for anyone trying to better Manchester’s lot, both in overcoming a fraught history and the incredible economic growth of the last decades, sparked by the 1992 Olympics and the dynamic leadership of mayor Pasqual Maragal. Though it is still going strong if the amount of iconic new buildings going up is any measure. It is worth noting though that Barcelona does have at its disposal a great deal of tools that no English city has, because the UK is, with the exception of New Zealand, the most centralised Western country in the world. While the proportion of central government expenditure in a German locality is 19%, and in more centralised France 35%, in the UK it is no less that 72%. This doesn’t leave very much room for local policymaking. While this Whitehall-centric system provides a safety net designed to stop weaker places failing, it also constrains stronger places from succeeding. Autonomy in Spain means real responsibility in areas such asschools, healthcare, roads, urban development and policing, with local not national frameworks and oversight. Whilst this is not without risk, it does enable cities to go their different ways, to place their bets and, if they get it right, their local populations reap the benefits, as places like Munich, Austen and Barcelona have indeed done. It was once this way in England too: it was localities that developedthe gas and electricity supplies, built schools and hospitals, and providedvastly better public facilities. Since the second world war though the consistent story is one of central government increasing its powers and responsibilities at the expense of the local. As Whitehall had less empire to run, so Parliamentary and government attention turned more to domestic policy. This changed accountability is reflected in democratic trends. As local policy became determined nationally, and local reporting streams became not to local populations or politicians but to Whitehall, accountable through Parliament, so turnout in local elections has dropped and is now, at 30 to 40%, the lowest by far in Western Europe. Despite Manchester’s own special arrangements, the link between business ratepayers and decisions is also generally weak, with businesses leaders consistently saying too little is spent on the issues they identify as most important: clean streets, business regulation, community safety and infrastructure support. Ultimately, UK plc loses from all this with big city growth outside below what we would expect. Time for change.
This blog was first published in the manchester evening news on july29 2012,