Rob Johnson

14 May

Just one example on how the trajectory of a single headline rate has affected urban areas very differently. Some places it hasn't really altered the bottom of the local Labour market. Others, more and more workers are being brought within touching distance.

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

📢 The UK’s minimum wage has risen faster than any other G7 country’s since 2015. But a single national wage floor interacts very differently with local economies across Britain. Our new report examines the impact across cities🔎👇 buff.ly/JniyKGB

The usual headline: Britain has low levels of public investment (yes, but still in line with other rich countries). The bigger story: Britain has unusually low levels of *local* public investment. Look how far out of kilter the UK is compared to the rest of the G7

centreforcities.orgBudgeting for better infrastructure through fiscal devolution - Centre for CitiesFiscal devolution could help mayors deliver infrastructure more efficiently and reduce delays caused by centralised funding

The fiscal devolution plans expected in tomorrow's budget signals a better balance in the future (think a more even split between light and dark green) This might seem like a technical change, but our work suggests this could improve infrastructure delivery across UK cities. Blog has more details:

Rob Johnson reposted

Ross Mudie

@rmudie96.bsky.social

Replying to @rmudie96.bsky.social

Worth remembering too that many of the worst high streets are ones with the least amount of business raying business rates. The cut won't help them or new businesses but it will help McDonalds, Betfred, and legacy businesses like WH Smith keep afloat. Is that really who we want to support?

inews.co.ukThe new station that tram passengers might not use for a decadeA new report has warned how delays to projects such as a Metrolink tram extension to Stockport Interchange is holding back towns and cities

A nice write up of our transport infrastructure work by @vickyspratt.bsky.social - how transport investment in our big cities could be an early test case for the benefits of devolution to mayors

Sean Canty@seancanty.bsky.social

Stockport: Metrolink ready, but still waiting for an extension. The West Midlands Metro connection from Wednesbury to Dudley is years overdue. Leeds has waited over 60 years for a tram. Why can't urban Britain build mass transit? @vickyspratt.bsky.social explains 🚊 inews.co.uk/news/new-tra...

Another way to look at this: In two years (2006-07), France built more tram track than the *entire length of all tram track in England combined at that time*. They built 133% of England's entire network in two years! Between 2004 and 2011 meanwhile, England added *0km*

Mark Byrne@markobroin.bsky.social

I'll stop posting about trams soon. But this is an amazing chart @centreforcities.bsky.social

French cities build way more trams than the UK. Over the past decade alone, they've added more than the entirety of all England's exiting networks combined. It's not just trams - from road to rail, England's transport infrastructure delivery has fallen behind. We wanted to find out why 🚃

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

NEW REPORT | Mayors have big plans for trams, rail and roads. But building transport in England is slow and costly. Licence to build sets out how devolution can help mayors deliver 👇 buff.ly/lopu9fe

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This is why we've set out our recommendations in phased steps - movement is needed across all these areas to help mayors deliver on their ambitions. Some steps need movement on other areas (but this doesn't make them any less important!).

centreforcities.orgLicence to build: Delivering urban transport infrastructure through devolution - Centre for CitiesDrawing on case studies across the country, this report sets out the interlocking barriers faced by mayors wanting to deliver local transport upgrades, and how to tackle them.

Loads more detail on recommendations in our full report - recommend you have a read! And big thanks to @adammoogan.bsky.social for his work on this - it's been a pleasure watching him get more and more annoyed about UK infrastructure planning over the past few months!

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

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centreforcities.orgAdding up: How to deliver fiscal devolution - Centre for CitiesThis briefing shows how the Government can design fiscal devolution for growth and fairness.

This is why fiscal devolution promises to be such a step change. Simple shift of retention from central to local, but then ties mayors to local economic growth, and unlocks further funding as they have balance sheets to borrow against. Read our proposals on how to design this here:

Finally, you need to make sure mayors have the capacity to do all this. Not an excuse to go slower on other areas of devo, as these will build capacity themselves. Rather, up to Government to identify what it can do actively to make sure capacity doesn't become a binding constraint on delivery.

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

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But more mayoral powers won't be enough without a streamlined planning process. Even local approval, Birmingham's Eastside Metro extension would still have to deal with >75% of the process (including 1000s of pages of environmental docs & multiple revisits to steps over small changes)

gov.ukCouncils face new rules for spending pothole funding, or risk losing their cashWe’re making sure every pound goes straight into fixing roads and tackling potholes across England, not being spent elsewhere.

Then there's finance. Reliance on central government grants means stop-start pipelines, split accountability, and limited borrowing against local revenues for big transport schemes. Means (among other things) you get national announcements about pothole funding (16 since 2019 by my count)

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

Government wants to 'rewire the state' with mayors at the forefront of investing in their places. To understand what barriers they face in doing so for transport infrastructure, how devolution plans could help, and where things still need to go further, we looked across four interrelated areas.

bbc.co.ukNo new A19 River Tees crossing 'for at least 12 years'A new Tees crossing must wait after not making the cut in a government review of new road schemes.

On powers: Govt is consulting on allowing mayors to approve their own light rail schemes, which is welcome, but depends on whether design choices are made to speed up delivery. It's trickier with roads - mayors are caught between LAs and national highways. It means MSA priorities get sidelined

Rob Johnson reposted

Ant Breach

@antbreach.bsky.social

To build more quickly, the mayors need changes to powers, the planning system, their financing of projects, and their capacity to deliver projects. All of this together will help Britain invest in more and better infrastructure:

Mark Byrne@markobroin.bsky.social

It took the city of Dijon 4 years to build 20km of tram. Birmingham's 1.7 km Eastside tram extension required nearly 6,000 pages of planning documentation and more than three years to secure approval. Thirteen years after it was first proposed, planning approvals were still ongoing.

Rob Johnson reposted

Mark Byrne

@markobroin.bsky.social

Rob Johnson reposted

Centre for Cities

@centreforcities.bsky.social

@simonjeffrey.bsky.social

*Nearly 40 year search

Mark Byrne@markobroin.bsky.social

Leeds is growing and wants to grow more. @andrewcities.bsky.social thinks it's the "most under priced city in Britain". But it behaves like a much smaller city than it is, partly due to very poor transport. My colleague @lukakovacevic.bsky.social, on the city's search for a much-needed tram.

Rob Johnson reposted

Simon Jeffrey

There's always a local economy angle. Would imagine employer NICs increases, reduced earnings level and increased minimum wage for 18-20s hit NEETS hardest in weaker local economies with lowest wages.

Rob Johnson@rjson.bsky.social

Thanks to a data release from ONS, we can get a sense of where NEETs are across England's cities for the first time. My blog has five charts to help Government understand how it should go about tackling the national crisis.

centreforcities.orgFive charts to understand NEETs in English cities - Centre for CitiesLocal data on NEETs in cities reveals important lessons for how Government should approach the NEETs issue.

Mark Byrne@markobroin.bsky.social

New 📊 from my colleague @rjson.bsky.social this morning. More than a third of England’s 700,000 NEETs are in the nine largest cities. www.centreforcities.org/blog/five-ch...

Rob Johnson reposted

Mark Byrne

@markobroin.bsky.social

Britain is not good at getting people into city centers. (Sign up for nice charts centreforcities.substack.com/p/good-growt...)

Healey's 'local apprenticeship service' seems promising: sounds a lot like our recommendation for a wider rolling out of mayoral powers to 'broker' connections between companies and prospective apprentices. Retention of Growth and Skills Levy would be an important subsequent step

centreforcities.orgRewiring skills & employment support: How devolution can untangle the system - Centre for CitiesThis explainer maps out the complex web of policies across education, skills, and employment support. It looks at the challenges and provides suggestions where devolution could untangle the system.

Our explainer on the local skills and employment support system has more detail - much of the value comes from simplifying the current system with devolution the means to achieve a lot of that

7 Sept

This is going to be a great event for those wanting to understand how mayors can cut help cut through the complexity in the existing skills and employment system - this panel knows their stuff 🎓

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

Tomorrow: What role can metro mayors play in reducing youth economic inactivity? Join Oliver Coppard and our expert panel to discuss how local leaders can strengthen labour markets and improve opportunities for young people. Register here: buff.ly/gUCwu2y

centreforcities.orgPay pals: The geography of the minimum wage across G7 countries - Centre for CitiesThis briefing looks at how other G7 countries address geography in minimum wage policy and what the UK can learn from them.

1 Sept

Would be interesting to see how this breaks down sub-nationally. Our recent research suggests, if the examples of Italy/France are anything to go by, compliance will be worse in the parts of the UK where the national minimum is most out of whack with local labour market pay - where it bites hardest:

Resolution Foundation@resolutionfoundation.org

Estimates suggest over 21,000 social care workers were underpaid the minimum wage in 2024. The true figure is likely higher still once we account for the unpaid travel time which often brings home carers’ average pay below the minimum wage. Read more 👉 buff.ly/87cXtSI

centreforcities.orgSix things we learnt from Mayoral Strategic Authorities about skills devolution - Centre for CitiesJess Tulasiewicz reflects on conversations with Mayoral Strategic Authorities about the devolved skills system, and where further devolution could make the greatest difference.

27 Aug

We've been chatting to mayors' teams about skills and employment support - the problems with the system and what they'd like to see change. Very different stories, whether talking about 16-19 education, adult skills, or employment support. Here's what we found:

centreforcities.orgReducing youth economic inactivity: The role of metro mayors - Centre for CitiesJoin Centre for Cities and the Work Foundation for a discussion on how Metro Mayors can tackle youth economic inactivity, featuring a keynote address from Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire.

27 Aug

We're doing plenty more to dissect the system over the next few weeks, so watch this space. And sign up to our event on how mayors can help tackle the NEETs crisis, with Mayor Oliver Coppard:

26 Aug

New Briefing: what could the UK learn from Japan's system of sub-national minimum wages? And why might the US not be an applicable example when thinking about how to incorporate economic geography into rate setting? Have a read here: www.centreforcities.org/publication/...

What about varying across sectors, rather than geography? Italy - a country with similar regional variation to the UK - shows why this would not work. Wages set sectorally at a national level would not mitigate geography, as low paid sectors are relatively evenly spread

@andrewcities.bsky.social

27 Aug

Meanwhile in Japan: - Wages related to local economic conditions - Local jurisdictions at the scale of local labour markets - Input of local expertise about economic conditions - Flexibility within a nationally coordinated system We think this points to a 'Mayoral LPC' model in the UK

People tend to look at the US as an example of sub-national minimum wage variation. But it offers a poor example: variation without coordination, driven by politics and not particularly aligned to local economic performance. See also (to a lesser extent) Canada

Rob Johnson reposted

Tom Forth

@tomforth.co.uk

21 Aug

Replying to @tomforth.co.uk

As a percentage of total employment, since 1948 when the data starts, Central government employment is today the highest on record. Local government employment is today the lowest on record. Some context for Andy Burnham's promise to try and reverse this trend.

Rob Johnson reposted

Andrew Carter

11 Aug

Often asked which places to look at that are doing interesting stuff to improve their city/town and its economy. Barnsley is on my list

👻 Jack Djinn Wail 🧞@jacktindale.bsky.social

My home town decided to stop trying to support two shopping malls and have converted the old one into one into something that might actually get footfall, such as turning a lot of it into an NHS diagnostics clinic. www.barnsleyhospital.nhs.uk/news/health-...

barnsleyhospital.nhs.ukHealth on the High Street – latest services move into Alhambra | Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation TrustBarnsley Hospital has unveiled the latest outpatient services to move into the Alhambra Shopping Centre’s health and wellbeing hub as part of the trailblazing ‘Health on the High Street’ initiative.

Rob Johnson reposted

Centre for Cities

@centreforcities.bsky.social

7 Aug

With the Government putting devolution at the heart of its plan to ‘rewire the state’, there are lessons for every part of the country in what Yorkshire cities are doing on transport and still need to do 🚌👇 buff.ly/Ov0CRQJ

centreforcities.orgFixing Yorkshire's transport connectivity gap - Centre for CitiesThere are lessons for every part of the country in what Yorkshire cities are doing on transport and still need to do.

Rob Johnson reposted

Andrew Carter

@andrewcities.bsky.social

assets.publishing.service.gov.ukassets.publishing.service.gov.uk

I am lucky to a member of several excellent policy groups. (Nearly) universal response has been positive to today's devo statement to assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a6c7a...

Rob Johnson reposted

Ant Breach

@antbreach.bsky.social

My immediate thoughts on today's Devolution Document It's a huge set of proposals that will fundamentally change British politics and the national economy Making mayors accountable for growing their taxbase + committing to giving them what they need to do this is a gamechanger Thread:

Centre for Cities@centreforcities.bsky.social

Quick analysis from @antbreach.bsky.social. 1/ Proposals = biggest transfer of power from national to local government in the history of the state.

Rob Johnson reposted

Oscar Selby

@oscarselby.bsky.social

The Prime Minister plans to 'rewire the state' and give more power to councils and mayors, who are better placed to deliver locally catered economic policy. Income tax sharing to mayors will be key to this. The UK is the most fiscally centralised country in the G7, holding back wages and growth.

Rob Johnson reposted

Will Jennings📉🗳️

@drjennings.bsky.social

@centreforcities.bsky.social

Replying to @drjennings.bsky.social

It must help hugely that Burnham was previously MCR mayor - so understands completely the levers that can be more immediately pulled and the dysfunctionalities caused by misalignment of areas of authority. His Westminster predecessors will have lacked any attention to this sort of crucial detail.

Rob Johnson reposted

Centre for Cities

Allowing mayors to keep a share of local income tax is unashamedly pro-growth and will remove anchors that have held back the UK’s cities for decades. It will be the most significant and welcome transfer of fiscal powers since the foundation of the modern welfare state.

ft.comAndy Burnham to give English mayors share of income tax from 2028New prime minister accelerates former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to move power away from Westminster

The tax retention news is so big it has overshadowed some of chunky stuff in the press release that complements it and fills out the devolution strategy pursued by the new PM. Some initial reactions by me and some @centreforcities.bsky.social thinking below to get you started 👇

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

This is a great move:

And the important underlying announcement - resource will follow. Tax retention will do some of this, but important to have the right skills and people to deliver at the local level. Announcement rightly highlights that capacity building is a crucial part of this project.

centreforcities.orgDevolution - Centre for Cities

Want to keep up with the biggest reshaping of the UK state in decades? We've got a 'Devolution Hub' to keep you informed that will be regularly updating over the coming weeks and months: www.centreforcities.org/devolution/

ft.comAndy Burnham to give English mayors share of income tax from 2028New prime minister accelerates former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to move power away from Westminster

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

This is a great move:

Skills: The focus on more devolution of 16-19 and employment support is the right focus, bringing them more in line with adult skills (a devolved success story). Both are complex, patchwork, and top-down which means many slipping through the cracks. Devo could rationalise and align a lot of this

(on devolution's role in delivering urban infrastructure and skills and employment support - expect some Centre for Cities work soon!)

ft.comAndy Burnham to give English mayors share of income tax from 2028New prime minister accelerates former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to move power away from Westminster

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

This is a great move:

Transport: Greater local control for rail would fill in the missing piece of truly integrated urban transport networks, expanding opportunities to >1m across the country. If GBR is shaped with this in mind (as signalled here), this could genuinely transform connectivity in our big cities:

centreforcities.orgAll aboard for growth: Why rail reform is incomplete without rail devolution for England’s big cities - Centre for CitiesThis briefing sets out how rail reform can fill in the missing piece of the integrated transport puzzle that would better connect 1.2 million more people in England’s six largest urban economies outsi...

Greater control over big transport schemes is important too, as mayors look towards delivery of new infra. This (e.g., devolved TWAOs) combined with the extra fiscal firepower suggests a whole systems approach to unlocking urban investment. Though would require changes to national infra planning too

ft.comAndy Burnham to give English mayors share of income tax from 2028New prime minister accelerates former chancellor Rachel Reeves’ efforts to move power away from Westminster

Stephen Bush@stephenkb.bsky.social

This is a great move:

centreforcities.orgFiscal devolution for England - Centre for CitiesThis briefing provides evidence to support the Government’s decision to advance fiscal devolution and explains how it can use these reforms to achieve both higher growth and greater fairness across th...

Income tax retention is huge, as it means when mayors grow their economies, they get to keep a portion of the rewards instead of it being siphoned off to Westminster. The more they focus on growth, the more they get to invest in their place. See our briefing on this from last month:

If you were in any doubt this was a policy focused on growth:

Sam Freedman@samfr.bsky.social

Devolving a portion of income tax is the most pro-growth policy we've seen in years. It means mayors will be hugely incentivised to grow their local economy including allowing lots of house building and infrastructure development.