DEVOLUTION: Bradford city centre could get major boost if Government accepts plans from local leaders

In the second instalment in our five-part series about what devolution would mean for local people and businesses, Bradford Council leader Councillor David Green talks exclusively about the powers they are hoping to secure.

BRADFORD city centre could get a major boost, if plans put forward by local leaders are accepted by the Government.

The West Yorkshire Combined Authority has revealed the wish-list of new powers it wants Chancellor George Osborne to hand over to the Leeds city region, in exchange for an elected mayor to oversee them.

It wants a host of new enterprise zones - areas given business-boosting state incentives - to be set up in various towns and cities, including central Bradford.

The Combined Authority, which is leading the negotiations, also wants the region to get a raft of other powers over transport, education, the economy and policing.

And in what is perhaps the most controversial aspect of its wish-list, it wants the power to raise cash through placing extra levies on local people's council tax bills and local firms' business rates.

This money would be used to fund major infrastructure projects.

Whether Mr Osborne will accept such demands remains to be seen.

But Bradford Council's Labour leader Councillor David Green, who sits on the Combined Authority, said if the deal wasn't right, they would be prepared to walk away.

To secure the most wide-ranging devolution settlements, Mr Osborne has told city regions that they must also accept an elected mayor to oversee these new powers.

Cllr Green said if the Government's devolution offer wasn't good enough to justify this change of governance, the deal would be off.

He said: "I'm not going to highlight them, but there are some 'red lines' that if we don't get, we don't think that devolution would be meaningful. Therefore, why would we bother?"

Cllr Green said revealing what these 'red lines' were would weaken their position in negotiation.

DEVOLUTION SERIES

But he did say one of his personal priorities would be the power to run a regional employment programme to replace the Government's Work Programme, saying the Bradford district's successful Get Bradford Working scheme had highlighted just what could be achieved by locally-controlled unemployment initiatives.

Cllr Green stressed that Bradford city centre had been given as "an example, not a definitive" suggestion for one of the new enterprise zones.

He also acknowledged the idea of local people paying extra taxes could prove a controversial one.

But he said levies could be fairly small and still raise a significant amount of money.

He said they may not want to add a precept to council tax bills, but were asking for the powers just in case.

And on a business rate levy, he said they would have to spell out to companies how the improved infrastructure would benefit them.

He said: "What we would need to do would be to say to people, 'These are the projects it's going to pay for', so people can see the economic benefit to the business."

What isn't in the wish-list are calls for piles of extra Government cash to spend in the area.

Cllr Green said: "We have to be realistic. If we turned round and said, 'We want twice as much in Government grants than we are currently getting', they are not going to give it to us."

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the opposition Conservative group at Bradford Council, said he feared the wish-list wasn't ambitious enough for Bradford as he couldn't see a game-changing infrastructure project, such as a major improvement to the transport links between Bradford and Leeds.

He also criticised the idea of increasing business rates to fund business-boosting infrastructure, saying this was a "batty" idea.

He said: "Increasing tax on business to increase business strikes me as the wrong way to go about it, frankly."

Cllr Cooke added that he would like to see the wider region turned into a large-scale Enterprise Zone, not just a few select areas.

THE LEEDS CITY REGION'S DEVOLUTION REQUESTS IN FULL

TRANSPORT:

• Control of a 10-year infrastructure precept, exempt from the cap on Council Tax rises, to deliver major new investments like a world-class public transport network ready for high-speed rail projects HS2 and HS3;
• Responsibility for a devolved transport budget, with a multi-year funding settlement;
• Responsibility for franchised bus services and for integrating a 'smart ticketing' system across all forms of local transport;
• Ownership of local railway stations, along with maintenance budgets;
• Responsibility for management of a strategic highways network, starting with the M606 and M621, along with maintenance budgets;
• A Memorandum of Understanding with with the Highways Agency over management of the M62;

BUSINESS

• The power to place a levy on business rates to invest in major infrastructure projects;
• Enterprise Zone status for major growth areas such as Bradford city centre, Huddersfield, Halifax, Leeds south bank, York central and Wakefield;
• Responsibility for managing European Structural and Investment Funds, the EU’s main funding programmes for supporting growth and jobs;
• Responsibility for a strategic infrastructure investment plan to give long-term confidence to those wishing to invest in the Leeds City Region;
• Being able to keep any growth in business rates;
• Responsibility for business support budgets;
• A significant portion of national investment for research and development facilities;
• Responsibility for budgets to deliver ultrafast broadband;

REGENERATION

• Control over a £500m-plus housing and regeneration investment fund;
• Powers to make sure assets owned by public bodies such as the NHS, Network Rail and Highways England are used and sold in a way that supports regeneration;
• Powers to give incentives to developers to take on strategic sites and prevent land-banking, and to bring empty listed buildings back into use;

CULTURE AND TOURISM

• Oversight of devolved funding held by Arts Council England and the Heritage Lottery Fund;

POLICING

• To take on the powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner, and potentially other emergency services, the courts and probation;

EDUCATION AND SKILLS

• Responsibility for regional education advisory services, and various services for children and young people;
• Powers to improve careers advice and for local authorities to intervene in failing academy schools;
• Control over further education budgets;
• Devolved budgets to help more businesses offer apprenticeships;

FAMILIES AND EMPLOYMENT

• Control over a programme extending the Troubled Families model of joined-up public services to other high-cost groups such as people with complex needs like drug dependency, mental health issues or worklessness.
• Devolved powers over unemployment programmes;

ENVIRONMENT

• Responsibility for local energy generation and efficiency;
• Responsibility for capital investment in flood defences.