13.05.20
Core Cities call for more local powers for C-19 recovery
Core Cities UK has urged Government to put localism at the heart of the coronavirus recovery.
City leaders that form the 11 Core Cities group, including Chair Cllr Judith Blake, have claimed that a centralised ‘command and control’ approach to easing lockdown is the wrong one.
The representative group is calling for City Recovery Deals and a Cities Recovery Fund to held rebuild the economy on a more local level, with the ability to address specific needs of an area.
Cllr Blake, Leader of Leeds City Council went on to say:
“Successfully lifting lockdown relies on maintaining people's trust and local leaders are far better placed to do that.
“We need a national framework, but trying to deliver this centrally across different places with different needs will waste time and money. Only a response drawn up between national and local government - properly funded and backed by data sharing - will work.”
Director of Core Cities UK, Chris Murray recently joined the Public Sector Voices podcast and also expressed his concern on tackling this lockdown with too much central Government control.
Speaking on the podcast, which will be published Thursday (May 14), he said:
“The UK is one of the most centralised states in the developed world and we think this is hampering economic performance.”
“We’ve got to bring policy down to the right level for the right thing.
He went on to talk about how devolved powers can safeguard regions across the UK from this happening again:
“We hope to build in greater economic resilience and ability to recover from economic shocks like the one we’re experiencing at the moment.”
Individual local circumstances must dictate recovery according to the group, who believe city councils are best placed and most trusted to guide their regions through the crisis, with the green agenda embedded into the process.