Tories plan city region managers
Stewart Jackson, a junior minister in the shadow Department for Communities & Local Government team, has told LGC the proposal was likely to be included in the party’s localism green paper.
“You could have a consortium of local authorities working together with a directly elected official,” he said. “It could be a city manager or a mayor although we don’t want to obsess about the word ‘mayor’.”
A merger of the post of city leader and chief executive has previously been mooted by Lord Heseltine, head of the party’s Cities Taskforce , (LGC - 09/11/06), while David Curry MP’s localism policy review endorsed city region mayors (LGC - 25/09/08) .
But this is the first time a serving member of the opposition has stated the suggestions could be merged to become official policy.
Mr Jackson told an LGC conference on the sub-national review his party was “not talking about the reconfiguration of the metropolitan county councils but, where it is logical and sensible and commands support, for mets to work together”.
He insisted the Tories would not impose directly elected mayors on any council, setting the frontbench at odds with Lord Heseltine.
Lord Heseltine has said that local authorities should be compelled to accept directly elected mayors. He slammed the disparity in pay levels between council chief executives and leaders.
His Cities Taskforce report recommended investing all executive powers in directly elected mayors for upper-tier councils. In Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Newcastle, pan-city directly elected mayors akin to London’s mayor should take power over strategic planning, regeneration, transport and police.
Assistant director-general of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives & Senior Managers , Mike Bennett, said elected managers “would have implications for the role of senior officers”.
“Were the Conservatives to make such a proposal we’d be interested in looking at it in greater detail,” he added.
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