What would regional devolution look like under a Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party?
In less than a fortnight’s time Labour Party members, affiliated supporters and registered supporters will begin voting for the Party’s new leader. To the surprise of almost everyone Jeremy Corbyn has emerged as a leading contender for the position. Today Thorncliffe considers how a Corbyn led Labour Party might look at regional devolution. Corbyn has released a paper called Northern Future which explores tentative thoughts on devolution.
Corbyn’s paper takes a critical tone towards the implementation of directly elected mayors without referendums. The paper also expresses scepticism as to the nature of how devolution might work in terms of governance, calling for ‘a constitutional convention set up as soon as possible’. The campaign asked people in the north for their views, and happily quotes a respondent calling for Parliaments in Yorkshire, The North West and North East. Whilst the document has not gone into huge detail in terms of planning powers, we might presume that such bodies might take some responsibility for managing planning as is envisaged with the combined authorities. There are also several nods to unease already expressed from the rank and file of the Labour Party concerning combined authorities.
What the document does say on planning largely focuses on housing. Corbyn is proposing lifting the restrictions on local authority borrowing to build council housing. He also proposes a National Investment Bank which would prioritise housebuilding. We would predict that suggestions of creating a national bank at the same time as setting out his plan for regional priorities will draw predictable criticism.
Clearly the openness of the document leaves room for manoeuvre as predictably it might, given the lower priority that those who are part of the voting franchise for the Labour leadership might give to regional devolution compared to other issues. Many will interpret this document as a bid to persuade supporters of northern based candidates (Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper) that Corbyn understands the north and will stand up for the north despite being a London MP.
This article was first published on the Thorncliffe website.