
James Palmer: How devolution can boost innovation and economic growth
Through partnership working, we can be more agile in meeting the infrastructure needs of the regions we represent.
Through partnership working, we can be more agile in meeting the infrastructure needs of the regions we represent.
By offering strategic support to new industries, the Government can honour its promise to ‘level up’ the nation and turn the UK into a global leader.
We should be asking ourselves what we want from local government in the future, particularly in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
There can be benefits to democracy – and efficiency from reform. But change must come from below – not be imposed from the top.
But Labour will be under most pressure. They will be defending seats in areas where they performed very poorly in the General Election.
I commit to ensuring that education standards improve, and to back a freeport and eco-innovation enterprise zones.
The region is still strong Labour territory. We must ensure that Andy Street is at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham in 2022.
The image of large swathes of the north, as a post-industrial wasteland, filled with abandoned Victorian terraces, isn’t just wrong and offensive. It’s actively dangerous.
The Conservative Party could become the natural home for the urban working class if it revived these towns, David Skelton argues in his new book.
A serious devolution agenda would champion freedom from the suffocating tendrils of risk-averse Whitehall mandarins.
We cannot afford to have so much at risk of bandwidth bottlenecks in Westminster and Whitehall. It’s time to kickstart decentralisation.
The previously centralised direction of spending was unimaginative and bureaucratic. Funding went into leisure courses.
This governance model’s real flaw is a complete lack of checks and balances on executive powers. I hope in 2020 we will end it.
Labour losses was the big story here. Many working class voters switched to backing independents, with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also gaining.
Good luck to every Conservative standing for election today. Let us hope that in future much more power is devolved to the roles you are competing for.