London councils call for more devolutionary powers

Claire Holland, chair of London Councils, has proposed a Combined Board model similar to Manchester or the West Midlands

London’s borough councils have called for greater devolutionary powers to allow them to share decision-making with the Greater London Authority (GLA).

Councillor Claire Holland, who chairs the London Councils group representing local government in the capital, has proposed a Combined Board model, similar to what is used in Manchester and the West Midlands.

Ms Holland said this would enable more efficient decisions and “get money through the door, more quickly”, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

However, a GLA report in September said these proposals would “mean that some parts of London are not fully included in decision-making”.

Currently, collaboration between boroughs and the GLA is voluntary and has led to schemes such as the Warmer Homes Programme.

“We work very closely with the mayor, but because this is voluntary, there’s no hardwiring into the system of decision-making and it can prolong the length of time,” Ms Holland said at an event at the Labour Party conference on 30 September.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, introduced by the government in July, proposed giving more powers to the GLA but not to London’s borough councils.

The GLA’s Oversight Committee appeared to reject Ms Holland’s suggestions in a report published last month, which said London was “a significantly larger and more complex city, with 33 local authorities” compared with cities like Manchester, which has 10.

The report added: “It would clearly be unmanageable to run a strategic authority with 34 decision-making authorities.”

It concluded that introducing additional decision-making structures “risks confusing governance, undermining transparency, and weakening accountability”.

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said that “Sadiq has a good relationship with London’s local authorities” and would continue to work closely with local government.

The mayor also committed to work with London Councils to deliver the integrated settlement, which will give the GLA greater flexibility in deciding how to spend money from central government, the spokesperson added.