England’s mayors should be given sweeping new powers, says devolution expert

Andy Burnham has said the ‘days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over, for good’. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham has said the ‘days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over, for good’. Photograph: Alastair Grant/AP England’s mayors should be given sweeping new powers, says devolution expert Exclusive: Burnham-aligned thinktank calls for devolution of public services including social care, childcare and skills Mayors should be given power over a wide range of public services, including social care, childcare and skills, according to a paper written ’s devolution plans. JP Spencer, the head of devolution policy at the thinktank ThinkLabour, calls for mayors to take control over large parts of service provision in a paper that gives an indication of how the probable next prime minister could seek to shift power out of Whitehall. Spencer is one of a small team of policy experts who have been feeding ideas to Burnham in recent weeks as the Makerfield MP looks to hone his policy platform with a view to becoming prime minister later this month. Earlier this week Burnham unveiled plans to move parts of the Downing Street operation to Manchester, as he warned: “The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over, for good.” England has some of the worst regional inequality in the western world, with seven of the 10 poorest regions in northern Europe – something many experts blame on the country’s highly centralised politics. Spencer said: “National command and control systems have proved insufficient to tackling our more complex problems.” His paper argues for “a radical reshaping of the state around local democratic boundaries at local or strategic authority level supported by a central state that encourages rather than controls”. Under his plans, mayors would appoint health and education commissioners to oversee local schools, GPs and childcare providers in a similar role to that played . Mayors should be given direct control of sixth-form colleges and the government’s skills agenda, possibly receiving more than £4bn from the growth and skills levy to help pay for that. Meanwhile health commissioners, appointed directly by mayors, would have oversight of public health and primary care. On policing, Spencer endorses Shabana Mahmood’s plans to reduce the number of police forces, although he recommends aligning them with mayoral areas and allowing mayors to become police and crime commissioners, as some already have.