'Devolution can help Hampshire thrive' - local leaders

A deal devolving more powers to Hampshire’s southern powerhouse could see decisions made locally on transport, health, jobs and housing.

As reported in this week’s Daily Echo, the county’s council leaders have signed their proposals to grab a raft of powers from Whitehall.

But with government ministers set to run the rule over the bid for a slice of the devolution “cake” how would the new powers actually work and benefit the county?

One of the most important things council leaders want to achieve will be some financial independence from the government hand-outs they receive every year, and which have been declining in recent years.

Simon Letts, the Labour leader of Southampton City Council, said: “If all of our proposals went through, the biggest advantage would be that we would be free from the constraints of having to wait very year for December to come around to find out what our budget was.

“I joked at the meeting of leaders this week that we should call it “free at last” – free from government interference with control over our own destiny to raise resources that we will spend on local services for local people.

“That would be a massive step forward.”

Cllr Simon Letts

It is a subject his Conservative counterpart at Hampshire County Council, Roy Perry, agrees with him on.

He said the funding changes, which would see the authorities keep 100 per cent of business rates and could spell the end for the annual grants handed out by the government, would mean more certainty and that council’s budgets would “not be changed by a diktat at the end of December”.

Cllr Perry says he believes devolution could leave make Hampshire a more prosperous place and benefit residents across the county.

He continued: “I think as the leaders of councils and democratic representatives of the county and the Isle of Wight we would be a dereliction of our responsibilities to the people not to consider this deal for devolution.

“Hampshire is a very prosperous area but we could be so much more better off.

“The south of the area is significantly less well off than the north and one of the things we would want to do is to progress that across the county.

“That’s one of the reasons that I was very strongly in favour of it being the whole county, at gives us more capacity, scale and strength.”

Cllr Roy Perry

If the bid to government is successful – and it is a big if – then planning and building new houses would be one area that would see a boost.

Cllr Letts says it could provide councils with the extra money needed to build council homes and kickstart developments for first-time homeowners.

The detailed bid to government, features a commitment to building 500 more homes every year than the 76,000 already pledged by Hampshire’s councils by 2026.

But as well as creating new homes civic chiefs are also keen to ensure it will offer protection for green spaces on the outskirts of towns and cities that residents fear are at risk of development.

Cllr Perry added: “We’re saying to the government ‘give us more control over planning so we can fix it ourselves and we can meet targets and hopes the government has’.

“If we can declare a green belt in Hampshire – it is ludicrous that there are no green belts around Southampton and Portsmouth – then peoples’ concerns and reservations about developments may to a certain extent be answered.”

He said it could give local people the chance to nominate areas to become a designated green belt, with a decision then coming from the leaders on the new authority, meaning the decisions would “not be dictated by remote agencies”.

Jobs and skills – and providing more of both – are also key elements of the plans, Cllr Letts saying the plans could also fund a Hampshire-wide, multi-agency programme to get people who are not working into employment, adding: “This could mean additional help for people with addictions, or mental health issues and helping them so they are contributing to society rather than public resources being spent to help them.

“We can’t carry on spending resources training four times more hairdressers than are needed and not enough bricklayers, and that means people come in from outside the area or the country to do those jobs.”

Devolution may also see council chiefs take control of major transport improvements, something they say would mean plans could be made and executed in a far shorter space of time than is currently possible.

Plans for the M27 to become a “managed” motorway which would see its hard shoulder used during congestion, could be accelerated and they would coordinate extra funding for road and rail improvements as well as a Hampshire-wide Oystercard-style initiative.

Bus services – something that has been in the news in recent years with some evening, weekend or unprofitable routes being axed – could also be given more security, with Cllr Letts saying: “From that we can make local decisions about what is important for local people. If they say it’s important to get more bus services in the evenings then we would be able to do that because we have asked for the power to vary the national bus pass scheme.”

If Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Greg Clark – and Chancellor George Osborne – looks favourably on the proposals, they may be included in the Autumn Statement that’s scheduled for the end of November.

But Cllr Perry says that even then it’s unlikely to see anything happening until the end of 2017.

He added: “We have the biggest economy of a county area in the country with Southampton and Portsmouth included, so we would be the first and I think one of the best area.

“The government is quite keen to have an area in the south of England.

“We don’t want any new offices, we don’t want any new councils. It would operate through a leaders’ board, we have had to say we will look at a mayoral team which is something that the government seems to want us to look at but I have not met anyone who thinks that would be remotely wanted in this area of the world.

“We want to get greater cooperation between the councils that we already have.

“Existing councils would retain their existing responsibilities and powers, it’s just that we would get these additional powers that we are seeking that we would have to have agreement across the area.

“It’s perfectly clear that there aren’t big political disagreements, there is common ground.

“We’re not convinced that this part of the country is getting its fair share of the cake.”