Recently in Elected Mayors/local government Category

In the second of our series of elected mayor referendum specials, Nottingham-based Tim Garratt, director at Innes England, gives his view on the much-anticipated referendum on 3rd May and what it could mean for the East Midlands' capital.

Nottingham is one of the selected cities where there's a referendum on 3rd May to decide whether to elect a mayor. If the answer is 'yes' then the city has a vote in November. A mayor would follow.

The city council got into hot water after spending taxpayers money on a 'no' campaign. The leader of the council is fundamentally opposed to the suggestion - principally (I believe) as it will take away some of his power and certainly some of his status.

We have entered a period of small-time politics and spin, in my view. Leaflets delivered talk about the costs (£1m plus) without any detail as to how this is made up! It's all rather negative.

2012 is a new world. The landscape we work and live in has changed beyond belief - and perhaps the time has come for a new way of working.

Nottingham's private sector is keen to see Nottingham punch above its weight. Inward investment is something close to the property sector's heart. A mayor could help with this.

Look what Boris Johnson has done for London - he has raised the profile of the capital city.

Nottingham has an opportunity to raise its game. Prime minister David Cameron is offering a place at the table twice a year for a Mayors Cabinet. Can Nottingham (as a core city) afford not to be there?

My problem with all of this is that the debate is being downplayed. The "yes" campaign only started with less than three weeks to go. The campaigning has had little airing which is a great pity.

I see the mayor as a great opportunity. We should embrace it wholeheartedly. The present leadership won't agree, because turkeys have never voted for Christmas...

What are your views on elected mayors? Please feel free to leave your comments below.

In just over two weeks citizens of Birmingham, Nottingham and Coventry go to the polls to decide whether to have a directly elected Mayor. These much-anticipated referenda on May 3rd will also be held in 7 other UK cities. 

In the Midlands many question marks still hang over the issues of what powers the new elected mayors may have, what policies will come to the fore and - perhaps most interestingly for the property industry - what influence these new figureheads will have over the planning regime. 

In a series of special guest blog posts, we get property insiders views from Birmingham and Nottingham about the campaign and what it could mean for the regions' cities

In the first of these guest blog posts, Martin Field of Birmingham-based public affairs company RJF, gives his views...

The entry of former treasury minister Liam Byrne into the contest to be Birmingham's first elected mayor has catapulted the issue at last into the mainstream. 

The prospect of elected mayors in England's major cities is now no longer of concern only to political nerds and the chattering classes in Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and elsewhere. The fact that a former cabinet minister is considering leaving Westminster for the regions has elevated the status of local government at a stroke.  

But Byrne's move - and the subsequent coverage in the national media - has done little to move the debate beyond the personalities in play and the party political shenanigans that have ensued. 

What about the policies, the actual powers - both 'soft' and 'hard' - that will be wielded by elected mayors in some of the core cities in just a little over six months' time? It's highly likely that citizens in Birmingham and other cities will vote for the change in referendums on May 3. Leicester, of course, is already a mayor-led city. 

The question of powers is a tricky one, with the government's Localism Act - which triggered the mayoral referenda - infuriatingly coy about exactly what extra authority and money mayors will have. The government expects and hopes that mayors will be the dominant actors when it comes to regional transport and infrastructure projects. This raises interesting questions for a property industry still absorbing the implications of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF). Will mayors - some of whom may be new to politics - seek to influence planning decisions on the ground, when the legislation gives them no more authority over planning committees than currently exists for council leaders? 

And, given the example of Crossrail in London, will mayors seeking grand projects implement Community Infrastructure Levies (CIL's) like they're going out of fashion?

The answers will only become clear as we move beyond the referenda on May 3 and into the mayoral election campaigns proper, when the policy platforms of candidates are opened up for scrutiny.

What is clear, however, is that the nature of politics and government in at least some of the UK's major cities is set for a shake up more radical than any seen in the past 100 years.

RJF Public Affairs' Martin Field has over 25 years experience in the property industry, specialising in planning, development and the residential sector. Management consultant Field is based in the Midlands, providing inward investment, local government policy and public affairs advice to both national and international clients through The Urban Consortium. He is also a member of the UK executive committee of the global non-profit research and education organisation Urban Land Institute. Field has been deputy chairman of Marketing Birmingham, is chairman of the Chicago-Birmingham Sister Committee and is a former member of the advisory panel for Locate in Birmingham. He is co-founder of RJF Public Affairs, which counsels organisations on issues of public policy where legislative, regulatory or governmental decisions could affect their operations, prospects or value.

What are your views on elected Mayors? Please feel free to leave your comments below. 

Pic courtesy of wwarby via Flickr.com