Liverpool urged to push for city region mayor

LIVERPOOL’S Mayor Joe Anderson says the wider city region should push to have an elected mayor as part of a Greater Manchester-style devolution deal with the government.

Chancellor George Osborne announced an historic deal in Manchester on Monday – the first with an English city – to hand certain powers, such as transport, planning, housing investment and skills to the new mayor and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority.

Mayor Anderson said a mayor for Merseyside would have powers to “make a real difference” to the people of the region, and the case for devolution was “a powerful one and should be recognised”.

The Greater Liverpool region includes six councils – Liverpool, Wirral, St Helens, Halton, Sefton and Knowsley. Earlier this year they agreed to form a combined authority, but not after significant wrangling.

Mayor Anderson, who said he would be interested in running for the wider role, said: “We have to work with government to get those powers and bring them to the local level where we can make a real difference for the people who live here.”

Business lobbying group Downtown in Business said the city region faces a “critical time” and must push for powers to be devolved from Whitehall.

Founder and chief executive Frank McKenna said: “The Manchester deal, which includes the establishment of a powerful elected city region mayor, demonstrates how much can be achieved when there is genuine collaboration and co-operation at a city region level. Greater Manchester will now get significant budgets to deal with a whole range of strategic policy issues including planning, health and social care, transport and economic development.

“It is now surely time for Liverpool’s city region leaders to wake up and smell the coffee. It is a nonsense to believe that similar powers will be devolved to us unless we sign up to an elected city region mayor. It is crucial that on the key strategic issues we accelerate the momentum of partnership that has been slowly progressing through the Local Enterprise Partnership and the Combined Authority.”

He added: “Rather than bickering over what the name of the Combined Authority should be or who should be co-ordinating the marketing of the city region, our civic leaders should have been at the top table with the Chancellor negotiating for more power, responsibility and resource.

“We must now get on with that job and make sure that other city regions such as Leeds and Newcastle to not jump ahead of Liverpool too.”

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