Money talks: The finances of English Combined Authorities

Abstract

The mayoral combined authorities created in England in the mid-2010s were hailed as a new form of territorial governance, tasked with driving economic growth in city regions. Much debate has ensued about the nature, potential and reach of the new organisations, located in a complex web of governance networks, but lacking an explicit policy rationale or clearly identified territorial boundaries. This article examines the funding and financial arrangements of the new bodies, as these embody the character of central–local relationships; these in turn are the critical influence on the activities and priorities of mayoral combined authorities in England. It argues that central government funding transfers are assuming a disproportionate influence on the functions and priorities of mayoral combined authorities, due to the metagovernance framework within which they operate. This incentivises them to develop into ‘grant coalitions’, seeing central funds as the only available route to local impact.

City Regions and Devolution in the UK

“…Critical here is the deep ideological belief in developing Introduction for the Northern Powerhouse (Chapters 2 and 4) to direct power and resources into Northern Britain. There has subsequently been a Wave of City Deals with further deals for other city regions being progressed along weaker lines (Sandford, 2019(Sandford, , 2020.…”

The leadership of place and people in the new English combined authorities

“…Within their constitutional context, the role of a metro-mayor necessarily involves operating through relationships rather than through executive power (Sandford, 2019).…”

“…The capabilities of the individual leader make a crucial difference, including their persuasive ability, judgement, capacity, integrity, collegiality (Brown, 2014). The capabilities of the new metro-mayors in all these areas were perceived very differently in their first year, not least their approach to envisioning, negotiation, and convening and collaboration (Sandford, 2019).…”

Conceptualising ‘generative power’: Evidence from the city-regions of England

“…The history of all hitherto existing proposals for English devolution is the history of squaring a very British circle: how to accede to demands for greater local control over resources and decision-making whilst simultaneously maintaining the UK’s essentially centralised system of governance (Richards and Smith, 2015). The answer to this ‘question’ throughout the last 50 years has been some version of generative power (Sandford, 2019). There are some justifications for this route.…”

“…In contrast, relatively substantial funds for economic development-related activity are available to MCAs: each individual MCA’s budget is in the low hundreds of millions of pounds annually, including a general ‘investment grant’ and most local transport funding (Sandford, 2019). This is a small amount in comparative terms (Hambleton, 2017; Jeffrey, 2017; Slack, 2017), but it is sufficient to enable some local influence.…”