Wave 1 City Deals inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“The government announced its plan to negotiate ‘City Deals’ with local leaders in its 2011 paper, Unlocking growth in cities. It aimed to make deals that empowered cities to boost local economic growth. In 2012, the government signed the first 8 City Deals. Known as Wave 1, the deals covered England’s ‘core’ cities—the cities at the centre of the 8 economically largest areas in England, outside London. They are: Bristol and West of England City Region Deal Greater Birmingham City Deal Greater Manchester Combined Authority Deal Leeds City Region Deal Liverpool City Region Deal Newcastle City Deal Nottingham City Deal Sheffield City Region Deal The deals were individual to each city and covered a range of policies, such as transport, housing and skills. They are an important catalyst for cities to develop their capacity to manage devolved funding and increased responsibility for economic growth. They are also designed to empower local leaders and businesses to create local growth, and have enabled cities to present their local economic priorities directly to government decision-makers. Government departments have committed up to £2.3 billion to the deals, spread over 30 years. This inquiry looks at the early impacts from some of the individual programmes agreed in the deals and how impact is being evaluated and shared.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
City Deals are a new way of working between central and local government. They have provided local places with the opportunity to set out their own growth priorities and present them directly to the Government. In return, the Government allocated to devolving responsibility for funding and delivery of specific programmes. While some individual programmes in the deals have shown early signs of success, it is too early to assess the overall impact that City Deals could have on local growth. The Department for Communities and Local Government (the Department) accepts that the failure to put in place monitoring and evaluation arrangements at the start of City Deals makes it significantly harder to assess progress and know which programmes will have the biggest impact on growth. As the Government has set out its ambition to continue devolving responsibility for local growth to local places, the Government needs to be clear about how it determines the funding to be devolved to deliver services locally.
The Department must develop a consistent approach to measuring impact alongside a more robust assessment of the capacity of local areas to implement and run devolved programmes. We also urge the Department to work with local areas to strengthen local scrutiny and accountability arrangements and to ensure public engagement both in the negotiation and implementation of future devolved initiatives.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 10 August 2015 to its close on 12 May 2016.
- Oral evidence 16 Sep 2015
- Report 11 Nov 2015
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 7th Report - Devolving responsibilities to cities in England: Wave 1 City Deals ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 16 Sep 2015No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗