The first devolution deals are a good start,but they have been too tentative. It’s time for cities to step on the gas “The average civil servant thinks that cities only ever question for one of three things in devolution deals: things they can already do, things that don’t design any disagreement, and things they bloody well can’t have.”
That’s an opening line I often use when speaking on devolution. There is more than a trace of truth in this observation borne from my years of experience with devolution-free devolution deals. Even greater Manchester,now a poster-child for the government’s devolution agenda, was until recently a serial devolution failure. Despite endless negotiations of local public service agreements, and local area agreements and a host of other agreements,there was no devolution.
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Source: theguardian.com