What is Devolution?
Manchester is a pretty unique place for endless reasons, but one of the key things that separates it from other cities and regions is the way it is governed.
Devolution allows the mayor to have more responsibility over certain sectors, but what are those sectors and how has it been implemented here?
Devolution allows the mayor to have more responsibility over certain sectors, but what are those sectors and how has it been implemented here?
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00:00Now Manchester is an incredibly unique place for a number of reasons but one
00:03thing that makes it stand out from other cities and regions across the country is
00:06one word, devolution. Now everyone in Manchester will know the name of Andy
00:09Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester who was so vocal in speaking out for the
00:13North during the coronavirus pandemic. Now Burnham yields more power than many
00:16other mayors across England and that is again because of that word devolution.
00:19But what actually is it and how much power is given to the mayor? The mayor gets more
00:23control of local transport which is why we've seen such renewal with the B
00:25Network and Metrolink. He gets new planning powers to push development and
00:30he also got a certain amount of money to build 15,000 houses. So there are
00:34certainly some important things in there but the powers by no means make Andy
00:37Burnham into an all-powerful being. Manchester still relies on funding from
00:41the government and there are strict rules on what it can and cannot do.
00:43However with the scheme being a success a further deal was signed last year to
00:47allow some control over education as well as the railways. All this is to say
00:51the mayor and the Greater Manchester Combined Authority do have a lot of
00:53power but not over everything. So do you think that it's been a success for
00:57Manchester? Let us know in the comments below.