By Ben Walters

This was the last spring budget (by current plans), and it was fairly muted in tone. That was expected: with all the uncertainty surrounding the UK economy, the Chancellor had no desire to add even more moving parts. But despite the lack of major announcements, there was something of interest for cities and LEPs.

We have also seen one of the fastest and most significant u-turns of a recent Budget. The reversal on self-employment NIC taxation after one week has been damaging to the Chancellor’s standing and will undermine the ability to reform self-employment and terms & conditions in the medium term. It creates a shortfall of £2 billion which will force the government to have to find these savings elsewhere. For Philip Hammond’s first budget as Chancellor this could have an effect in changing the balance of power in the Cabinet, and risks making the Government look weak and vulnerable to back bench pressure for policy change.

BY Mike Emmerich

The much awaited Industrial Strategy Green Paper has arrived. The Metro Dynamics team have run the rule over it, looking at what’s in it and what it means. Two cheers rather than three is our view. It’s a start and not a bad one at all, but it’s what happens next that matters most.  And that needs local places as much as central government to be bold with their ideas and proposals.

It’s hard to argue that the Green Paper is, in essence, wrong. But it’s equally hard to argue that the Government or indeed places have yet to rise as fully as we need to the challenges facing post-Brexit Britain.  On the one hand this is fair enough, those implications are not yet clear.  But the nation is hungry for a new approach to business and growth. The Government has fed us a little, and yet as we digest the voluminous Green Paper sandwich it has offered, we’re left wondering: where’s the meat? The Green Paper is very necessary indeed. But is it sufficient?

By Ben Walters

On the 23rd January, the government released a green paper on its new Industrial Strategy, as a public consultation. This is the first major strategy since the new government, and further clarifies the changing economic approach that will be taken over the coming years. It continues an increase in interventionist policies (such as the 2016 Autumn Statement), as well as a focus on regional inequality and productivity. While the main influences of these policies (Theresa May, Greg Clark and Phillip Hammond for the Autumn Statement) of the strategy were not ‘Leavers’, they are all seen as governments response to the referendum, and how to adapt the economy to best meet the challenges and opportunities this presents. 

By Ben Walters

On Tuesday, Philip Hammond delivered his first Autumn Statement as Chancellor, and gave the Treasury a chance to react to both Brexit and new fiscal forecasts. Below, we have discussed some of the changes which may impact on cities.

‘showing the Treasury’s reaction to both Brexit …’

By Ben Lucas

At the Core Cities Summit last week, city leaders were understandably frustrated by the suggestion that inclusive growth is on the agenda because of the EU referendum.They didn’t need Brexit to tell them that the economy is not delivering for their residents. But, as chief market strategist for Britain and Europe at JP Morgan Asset Management, Stephanie Flanders, said to those leaders, Brexit has created a unique opportunity to change our economic model

Prime minister Theresa May has said her number one priority is to develop an ‘economy that works for everyone’. In her speech on becoming prime minister she asked to be judged on the extent to which she succeeds in this.

Metro Dynamics are acting as strategic advisor and secretariat to the West Midlands Land Commission (WMLC). The role of the West Midlands Land Commission is to take a fresh look at matters affecting the West Midlands' land supply.

The commission will provide independent advice and recommendations to the authority as it seeks to secure an improved and balanced supply of land to meet its goals for economic growth, new jobs and housing.

By Caroline Haynes

There aren’t a lot of jokes about regulators. Here’s one. A regulator marches into a compliance manager’s office and slams down a stack of 3,331 complaints. He yells that the (banking/pharma/telecoms) company has until next Friday to respond. “And if we don’t?” “You’ll have 3,332 complaints” the regulator responds sheepishly and slinks out.

Last week, yet another UK regulator followed the script of that joke. Following an extensive investigation, Ofcom, the communications regulator, has decided to leave BT’s quasi monopoly over the UK’s broadband infrastructure essentially unchanged. This is not just bad news for the country. It is really bad news for UK cities.

By Ben Lucas

This is a moment of great risk and opportunity for British cities.  Post EU referendum, post Cameron and Osborne, the stakes have never been higher.  Cities have patiently and persuasively made the case for rebalancing growth and power, and for devolution to combined authorities with Metro Mayors.  They now face some big challenges, as we set out in Adieu: the impact of Brexit on British Cities - on EU funding, trade, investment, universities and the progress of their devolution deals.

By Mike Emmerich

There is a view that after its post war flirtation with Morrisonian nationalisation and then Thatcherite privatisation, British industrial policy has settled into a new and desirable norm. As I write this blog, Janan Ganesh’s latest piece for the FT is staring at me. “The quiet success of Britain’s anarchic economic model” reads the headline, setting the tone for an argument to be heard often in parts of Britain that we have moved beyond the rigidity of our more doctrinaire past, and in doing so past our old rivals in France, and maybe even in Germany too, in creating a model that has fixed the generations-old British disease.