Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has announced that 20 cities and their wider areas will be given the opportunity to bid for radical new powers for growth, and the Oxford City Lib Dem Group is pressing for the City to work up an exciting and wide reaching bid.
The second wave of City Deals invites twenty cities and their wider areas to compete for deals that would see Government devolve powers in exchange for responsibility for delivering growth locally. Cities from the successful first wave of deals secured groundbreaking powers including the ability to ‘earn back’ tax from the Treasury, devolved transport budgets and control of the skills budget for their city.
Nick Clegg’s announcement is aimed at the next fourteen largest cities and their wider areas and the next six with the highest population growth between 2001 to 2010. Oxford is one of the latter six.
Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said:
In the best English tradition we have witnessed a quiet revolution across the nation’s eight largest cities.
“From control over buses and trains and the freedom to plug skills gaps, to powers to ‘earn back’ tax and set up local investment funds to spend on local projects – the deals are unlocking the huge potential of our cities so they can go for growth.
“Now its time to free even more places from Whitehall control. I want these twenty cities and their wider areas to come up with ambitious and innovative proposals to help them make changes that will be felt by everyone across their region.”
City Deals are a key part of the Government’s objectives of rebalancing the economy and boosting private sector growth. The second wave of City Deals will accelerate the pace of decentralisation and unlock new and innovative ways to drive growth. Deals will represent a genuine transaction between cities and Government, with ‘asks’ and ‘offers’ from both sides.
Leaders in the wave two cities will be asked to work together across their regions and to put forward proposals designed to unlock the full growth potential of the area. These proposals will need to be ambitious, harness public and private sector resources, and demonstrate strong leadership in the local area. The cities with the strongest propositions will be invited to negotiate a deal with the Government.