The article discusses the need for devolution of powers away from London to address the UK’s extreme geographical inequalities, as argued by Gwyn Bevan and Patrick Diamond. The authors compare the UK’s centralized systems of governance and finance with those of Germany and Italy, highlighting that the UK’s inequalities are greater than those that existed in Germany after the end of communism and in Italy due to endemic organized crime.
The authors use data to demonstrate that the regions of East Germany were richer than the poorest regions in the UK in 2019. They argue that the UK’s centralized systems have created economic fault lines, and that devolution on a regional scale is vital for economic growth and spatial development.
The authors recommend devolved powers comparable to the national devolved governments within the UK, Wales, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, to include health care, housing, and transport. They suggest bringing together several city-region combined authorities in England with directly elected mayors into a single, greater regional unit for effective planning.
The authors also address objections to devolution, such as the addition of bureaucracy and vulnerability to producer capture. They propose a federal laboratory where each devolved government collects basic data and follows common definitions, enabling comparison and learning. They also suggest that the Treasury would report to citizens on how effectively their taxes are being used by the devolved countries and English regions.
The authors conclude that effective devolution can replace silo working locally and develop place-based systems of governance by integrating health and social care and developing post-compulsory education as central to economic development. They suggest that the Labour Party’s aim to tackle silo working in Whitehall with a radical reorganization to deliver five long-term missions could be a successful model for governance.
