Who Runs the North East Now? Governance and Governing in an English Region
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St Chad’s College Durham University Who Runs the North East Now? Governance and Governing in an English Region Main Report Fred Robinson Keith Shaw Sue Regan Final Version: 9th October 2017 1 | P a g e CONTENTS Pages Executive Summary 5-14 1. Introduction 15-17 2. Parliament and Government 18-33 3. The European Union 34-37 4. Local Councils and Local Governance 38-58 5. Policing and Crime 59-62 6. Pan-Regional and Sub-Regional Governance 63-71 7. The NHS 72-89 8. Education 90-113 9. Arts, Culture and Sport 114-123 10. Social Housing 124-136 11. Summary and Conclusions 137-147 12. Bibliography 148-151 2 | P a g e Acknowledgements We are most grateful to the organisations that have generously supported this research: the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust; Newcastle law firm Muckle LLP; and the Institute for Local Governance. We also acknowledge the Millfield House Foundation that supported our previous study in 2000. We want to express our gratitude to our colleagues Jonathan Blackie and Ian Zass-Ogilvie and to the individuals in many organisations who responded to our surveys. We hope those who read this report will find it interesting, useful and thought- provoking. More than that, we hope our study will help to promote change. The Authors Fred Robinson is a Professorial Fellow at St Chad’s College, Durham University. He studied at Cambridge and Durham Universities, and has spent over 40 years trying to understand the North East of England. His research has covered urban change and regeneration, community development, regional governance, and developments in the voluntary sector. He is chair of Waddington Street Centre, a community mental health resource centre, in Durham City. Keith Shaw is Professor of Social Sciences at Northumbria University. A Northumbrian by birth, he was educated at the Duke’s Grammar School, Alnwick, and at the Universities of Hull and Manchester. Over the last 35 years, his research has covered urban and regional governance, public services reform, neighbourhood renewal, and devolution within the UK. He is Secretary of Benwell Hill Cricket Club and sits on the Management Committee of the North East Premier Cricket League. Sue Regan is a researcher at Northumbria University, after a 30-year career in North East local government and the voluntary sector. She has worked in both policy and practice, across community, partnership and regeneration remits, focused on equality and involvement. She studied at Newcastle Polytechnic and later gained a Masters in Urban Policy at Northumbria University. She is currently completing her PhD study, which examines local political representation and gender. Note We have tried hard to avoid errors, but in a research exercise of this kind there will inevitably be some errors of fact and interpretation. And, of course, things change and the information becomes out-of-date. We very much welcome feedback and hope readers will let us know about errors, misinterpretations and changes so that we can correct and update this Report. Please contact Fred Robinson at [email protected] 3 | P a g e ‘If one meets a powerful person… ask them five questions: • What power have you got? • Where did you get it from? • In whose interests do you exercise it? • To whom are you accountable? • And how can we get rid of you? If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system’. Tony Benn, MP (Final Speech, House of Commons, March 22nd 2001) 4 | P a g e EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Context In 2000, our report, ‘Who runs the North East … now?’ provided a detailed guide to governance in the region and offered a critical assessment of both elected and unelected organisations. The report raised concerns about quangos and the ‘democratic deficit’ associated with non-elected organisations that are made up of relatively small groups of appointed people, and also the long-standing problem of low election turnouts which affect the legitimacy of elected institutions. We also highlighted the lack of diversity - many of the people running the North East’s institutions could be described as ‘the usual suspects’, ‘the perpetually selected’ and often the ‘male, pale and stale’ who are evidently not representative of the region’s population. The study pointed to a lack of transparency and openness and, consequently, lack of accountability. Some of the region’s institutions appeared distant, detached, and secretive. Now, in 2017, we think the time is right to look again, at who runs the North East. Governance has once again become important because of public concern about many issues, including cut-backs in local government and public services; problems associated with structural changes in the governance and delivery of public services (e.g. in the NHS and schools); and the recent introduction of novel forms of devolution (such as Combined Authorities with Elected Mayors). This study focuses on North East England. This region comprises Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, and the Tees Valley. It has a population of 2.61 million. The research covers around 100 organisations that manage and deliver public services and spend altogether over £12bn a year. The study brings together, in one place, biographical information on who actually runs the myriad of organisations. Parliament and Government The North East has little representation and influence in Parliament and Government. There are altogether 650 MPs, and 29 of them represent North East constituencies. Hence, only 4.7% of MPs are from the North East. Moreover, few of the region’s MPs are in the majority party, the Conservative Party, which forms the present Government. Only 3 of the region’s MPs are Conservatives, while 26 are Labour. Only one of the region’s MPs is a member of the Government. This is very different from the position in 2000, when Tony Blair, MP for Sedgefield in County Durham, led a Labour Government and 6 of the region’s MPs were members of the Cabinet. In most respects, the profile of the North East’s MPs is much the same now as in 2000. Then, as now, most of the region’s MPs were Labour, local and middle-aged, had 5 | P a g e professional backgrounds and had served political apprenticeships as councillors or researchers or advisors working for MPs. However, there is one big change since our last analysis in 2000. Then, only 4 of the region’s MPs were women. Today, 14 (48%) of the region’s MPs are women - well above the national figure of 32%. In terms of gender at least, then, the region’s MPs are reasonably representative of the region’s population. Unlike previous elections over the last decade, the 2017 General Election saw the move back to a more traditional ‘two-party system’, largely as a result of the collapse in the UKIP vote between 2015 and 2017. Low turnout is a national problem, but has been traditionally worse in the North East. In the 2015 General Election only 61.4% of the electorate in the North East voted. However, there were signs of reinvigoration in the General Election of 2017 where turnout in the region increased to 66.0%. Participation in elections for the European Parliament has been particularly poor. At the last European Parliamentary elections, in 2014, the North East had the lowest turnout of any region in the UK at 30.9% -- amounting to about half the turnout achieved in General Elections. Lack of support for the EU in the North East, despite its impacts on the region’s economy, resulted in 58% voting to leave in last year’s referendum. Local Councils Local councils continue to be important, despite the steady erosion of their powers, functions and budgets. In 2015/16, North East councils spent over £6bn. They provide important local services, and in many places, the council continues to be the biggest employer. The abolition of District Councils in Northumberland and Durham means that there are now only half as many councils as there used to be, and 40% fewer councillors. The North East is still very much a Labour heartland; just over 67% of council seats are held by Labour and 11 of the 12 councils are Labour-controlled. There has been one major change in the characteristics of councillors: far more of them (43% in the North East) are women – well above the national average. However, only 2 of the 12 Leaders/Elected Mayors are women. It has remained the case that BAME communities are substantially under-represented: very few councillors are from these communities. Councillors in the North East are now older (average age 60.3 in 2013) and half of them are retired. Few are under 45. The stereotype of the North East councillor as a working class man employed in heavy industry is historical. Today, more are from non-manual 6 | P a g e backgrounds, and over half of them have university degrees. However, the region’s councillors still do not properly reflect the range and diversity of their communities. The North East’s councils function reasonably well, in difficult circumstances. But, local democracy continues to be at low ebb, with disappointing turnouts at elections, a dominant political party subject to little challenge, and widespread public indifference. Local Governance Local councillors retain influence via their membership of a range of organisations that make up the ‘extended world of local governance’. While there has been a substantial reduction in local government staffing levels and spending in recent years, the ability of local councils to nominate/appoint councillors and senior council officers to sit on partnership bodies, joint boards and participate in a wide range of local networks is still considerable.