Written Evidence Submitted by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (LRS0060)
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Written evidence submitted by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (LRS0060) Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee call for evidence: Post-pandemic economic growth: Levelling up - local and regional structures and the delivery of economic growth Contact: Beth Bradshaw, GMCA. SUMMARY ‘Levelling up’ will be best achieved through devolution of powers and funding to Combined Authorities, so that local leaders can use local intelligence to deliver economic growth. Mayoral Combined Authorities offer a single point of accountability for both Government and for local people. Mayoral Combined Authorities are the ideal tier for planning and delivery of the ‘levelling up’ agenda as they have a detailed understanding of local demography, opportunities and challenges, and can operate at scale across the city-region to deliver on local economic growth. Greater Manchester has a proven track record as the first Mayoral Combined Authority and everything we do is based on a robust evidence base. Greater Manchester has worked together for many years with strong, collaborative political leadership and a history of excellent performance and delivery. Greater Manchester’s Combined Authority and Local Enterprise Partnership have a strong and close relationship, bringing private sector leadership and the expertise of our universities into the heart of decision-making in the city region. The forthcoming ‘English Devolution and Local Recovery White Paper’, Comprehensive Spending Review, National Infrastructure Strategy and Green Book Review offer a once in a generation opportunity to change how we invest in people and places in the UK and will determine how and when the UK recovers from the covid-19 pandemic. Financing for Combined Authorities should take a ‘single pot approach’ which allows for all public spending to be aligned with agreed outcomes and strategies. Greater Manchester is developing a ‘place-based appraisal’ model to achieve this. The national Industrial Strategy, and associated Local Industrial Strategies, remain the relevant and appropriate vehicle to guide ‘levelling-up’ and long-term economic growth and productivity improvements for the UK. An explicit commitment from this Government to these strategies would help create certainty about the long-term direction of the UK economy, and increase much-needed confidence about our future. We urge Government to adopt the key principles for the UK Shared Prosperity Fund as set out by GM and other UK cities and regions. Greater Manchester is ambitious and innovative as a city-region, and is in a unique position to support Government on its ‘levelling up’ agenda, which has the potential to be actioned at speed with the right devolution and finance frameworks in place. CONTENTS (I) About Greater Manchester Combined Authority (II) Call for Evidence response (I) ABOUT GREATER MANCHESTER COMBINED AUTHORITY The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) is made up of the ten Greater Manchester councils (Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan) and the Mayor of Greater Manchester. The GMCA is run jointly by the ten council leaders and the Mayor of Greater Manchester. A variety of boards, panels and committees address specific areas like transport, health and social care, planning and housing. The ten councils have voluntarily worked together for many years on issues affecting the region, including transport, regeneration, and investment. These experiences provide GMCA with valuable insights into the questions raised by the Committee. We would be happy to discuss our response and any related matters with the Committee. (II) CALL FOR EVIDENCE RESPONSE Evidence base: Leaders in Greater Manchester (GM) has a mature history of collaboration, working together as a city- region since 1986 through various structures, originally as the Association of Greater Manchester Authorities and more recently, since 2011, as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority. In 2009, the Greater Manchester Independent Economic Review, was launched. Developed by a Commission of prominent economists and business leaders, supported by a Policy Advisory Group, the MIER provided an evidence base to underpin policy choices regarding future priorities for strategic investment in the city-region. Ten years on from the MIER, the Greater Manchester Independent Prosperity Review, led by a panel of six experts, provided a fresh understanding of what needs to be done to improve productivity and drive prosperity across the city-region, with a particular focus on productivity, education & skills, innovation and infrastructure. The Greater Manchester Local Industrial Strategy, published in 2019, is therefore based on the highest quality, independently-verified evidence base provided by the IPR. The Strategy was co-designed with business, the community, the voluntary and social enterprise sector and citizens. A comprehensive consultation exercise was undertaken, including a 6-week formal consultation. The GM Local Industrial Strategy provides the framework for a strong and enduring partnership between central Government and GM partners, based on a shared understanding of GM’s strengths and opportunities, barriers to growth and contribution to the UK economy. Local structures: Working together to deliver local growth As a city-region, GM has a unique partnership model at the centre of its strategy and priorities for growth. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) and the GM Local Enterprise Partnership provide collective leadership through a shared vision and priorities for the city region (set out in the Greater Manchester Strategy, which is soon to be refreshed with a 1-year recovery plan). This leadership at the city-region level provides the strategic oversight of investment, education and skills, business support, innovation and infrastructure development needed to deliver the right growth opportunities for GM. The voice of GM businesses provided by the LEP ensures that strategy and delivery reflect and adapt to the reality of business and sectors across the city-region, whilst our close relationship with academic partners from Greater Manchester’s six higher education institutions supports our work to seize future growth opportunities, increase productivity and support innovation. Working together enables GM to create attractive places to live, work and invest across the conurbation, and coordinate effective, efficient and integrated public services. In some instances it is necessary to collaborate on a larger scale than the city-region. A key example of this is transport, to ensure GM is well-connected to the North and the rest of the UK. GM leaders and Transport for Greater Manchester therefore work closely with partners such as Transport for the North to ensure strategy and delivery of transport within GM and across the North are aligned. Equally, some growth and investment activity needs to be delivered at the locality level, reflecting their unique spatial and sectoral assets, opportunities and challenges. Local Authorities must be empowered to develop tailored policies to tackle entrenched problems like low pay and worklessness. Some policy is best made at sub-district level, as demonstrated by the neighbourhood level principle in the GM model of unified public services. Mayoral Combined Authorities and city-regional partnerships are ideally placed both to act in the best interest of Local Authorities and to act as a delivery arm of national Government. Bringing Local Authorities together through MCAs is a unique way to reconcile local and national priorities, as well as to pool knowledge and resources between localities which have shared interests. The GM Growth Hub was the first established and is now the largest in the country, and is a specific example of devolved infrastructure simplifying access to national and local business support, helping to tackle regional disparities. The lessons learnt through the response to the pandemic are still emerging, however, a small number of key points are already apparent. Locally driven processes and responses are often more effective than those prescribed centrally through ‘top-down’ approaches and enabled improved co-ordination and collaboration between agencies. Relaxation of Government requirements and increased local control has allowed us to work more efficiently and effectively, bringing forward new tools (e.g. digitalised records) that have increased productivity. Stakeholder engagement: GMCA is uniquely positioned to engage with and bring together stakeholders across the city-region as partners for growth. For example, the Greater Manchester Employment and Skills Advisory Panel (ESAP) brings together representatives from GM core strategic partnership networks, including education/skills providers, employers, the VCSE sector, local authorities, and central government. It works to align employment and skills policy with national and local developments, through the design and implementation of a comprehensive local skills and employment plan that supports transitions from pre-16. Similarly, GM has been able to build confidence in the business base and local residents in its economic recovery work, through regular meetings with Business Organisation Representatives operating in GM. During the pandemic these fortnightly meetings were increased to a weekly basis to share local business intelligence and align and amplify messaging in local areas to support businesses. Organisations involved