Curated from , written by Sam Sims

In December last year the Cities Policy Unit announced a range of powers which they were considering giving away to cities. The Government was however, careful to explain that “the ‘deal’ must be a genuine transaction – with both parties willing to offer up and demand things in return.” Did the deals actually involve give and take? The Government’s main demand was that cities sort out their governance arrangements: “Where cities want to take on significant new powers and funding streams, they will need to demonstrate strong, accountable leadership” and “effective decision-making structures… across the economic footprint of cities.” The details of the City Deals have just been announced. Greg Clark has done a good job in securing cities some substantive new powers over revenue raising, pooling and retention, transport and infrastructure investment, and skills. This is a great start in the process of returning power to our cities. The question remains however, did the cities which strengthened their governance arrangements get more powers given to them? Was it a genuine transaction or did cities call the Government’s bluff? The table below shows all the areas in which cities have genuinely ‘extracted’ new powers or resources from central government. This [...]