Labour sets out plan to turbo charge Lowestoft’s economy with new powers for communities

Today [Thursday], Keir Starmer set out Labour’s manifesto which highlighted plans to turbo-charge local economies by putting access to decision making powers over transport, adult education and skills, housing and planning, and employment support in the hands of Lowestoft residents. 

The plans not only build on the “trailblazer” success deals of areas such as Manchester and the West Midlands by giving existing Mayors more powers, but also include an ambition to widen devolution across the country – with more than half of England’s population not being covered by a devolution settlement. 

Where combined authorities demonstrate effective money management, Labour has pledged ‘greater flexibility for integrated settlements’.

The new powers will be underpinned by statutory long-term “Local Growth Plans”, which will bring together communities to make the best out of the specialisms in their area, in line with a new national industrial strategy. 

Labour’s manifesto outlined how communities across the country will be supported by Westminster in delivering on these plans, bringing services back to the people who use them.  

Keir Starmer also set out plans for a review into governance arrangements, to make sure that combined authorities and councils work together properly to make decisions that benefit local people. 

These new plans are a stark contrast to the Tory manifesto, which made no new promises on devolution, echoing their hollow promise to negotiate out more devolution deals by 2030 and give new freedoms to the Tory Tees Valley mayor. 

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Deputy Leader and Shadow Levelling Up Secretary, said, 

“Our plans for wealth creation mean delivering growth in every corner of the country. That can only be achieved by putting power back into the hands of working people. That’s why, if we’re elected on the 4th of July, we’ll harness the potential of every town, village and city by pushing powers out of Westminster and rolling out Local Growth Plans. The people of Lowestoft deserve change, and they should have control over what matters to them most.”

Jess Asato, Labour’s candidate for Lowestoft, said,  

“For too long, decisions have been taken by Westminster without the voices of local people being heard in Lowestoft, Beccles and the villages.

“These new plans outline Labour’s core purpose: to put politics back into the service of working people.

“By bringing decision making about transport, planning, housing and others closer to communities, Labour will help Britain unleash growth and turn the page after fourteen disastrous years with the Tories who have nothing to offer the people of Lowestoft and Beccles.”  

Notes: 

Labour’s plans would devolve new powers over: 

Transport: Helping local transport authorities franchise bus services, lifting the Conservatives’ ban on municipal bus ownership and exploring how to best support combined authorities to integrate their bus and rail services. 

Skills: Devolving and integrating adult education and skills budgets and giving combined authorities a say over Local Skills Improvement Plans, which will form the basis of the work of new Technical Excellence Colleges. 

Housing and planning: Giving mayors new powers over strategic planning and control of housing budgets and strengthening their hands to get the homes Britain so desperately needs built, in the places with the greatest need and the infrastructure to support them.  

Employment support: Getting skills and employment support to go hand-in-hand by reforming and devolving employment support, ensuring greater local innovation in its delivery and design. 

Funding: Providing longer-term, integrated ‘departmental-style’ funding settlements for mayors that can provide exemplary frameworks for managing public money, with an aim to expand the number of combined authorities that have access to these flexible settlements. 

Yesterday, independent think tank Centre for Cities published analysis highlighting that the UK is unusual among leading G7 economies in that its ‘second cities’ outside of the capital are less prosperous than the country as a whole.  

The research found that this gap between cities like Manchester and Birmingham with the national average makes up 57 per cent of the UK’s so-called ‘prosperity gap’. The report cites deeper devolution as one policy solution to this gap.