LGA calls for wider access to City Deals
0Council leaders have called for the government’s City Deals scheme to be expanded.
Writing to ministers councils asked for City Deals to be transformed into local growth deals and used to boost flagging economies. Calling for “the next phase of this exciting work” Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association said that smaller cities and counties should be allowed access to similar policy that the current nine cities in the scheme have applied to them.
Andy Sawford, Chief Executive of the LGiU, told Room 151 in March that he wanted to see City Deals extended. “You have things like the City Deal for Manchester with the idea that they create a virtuous circle for the local authority to get a return on its investment,” he said. “… But government has to set out when and how other local authorities get to have this conversation otherwise it looks like picking winners.
In his letter to cities minister Greg Clark, Cockell also expressed concerns over the bureaucracy involved in approving city deals at the moment.
The LGA is running a campaign aimed at boosting economic growth in local areas and focussing on the introduction of ‘local growth deals’: deals will vary from place to place The LGA is asking councils for their help in suggesting what powers are needed locally.
