Great speech today from Andy Burnham. But how could devo-max work in practice? Last year I asked Andy Burnham to spell it out in Parliament - where he trailed the idea of local control of labour market policy for the under-25s. That became part of a series of recommendations... we made. The theory is simple. The UK is running an output gap - but that varies regionally. So, we need far more devolution of labour market policy and investment to help ensure very part of Britain is firing on all cylinders. Combine that with a ‘total place’ approach to pooled regional budgets to help transform the local state. Our key advice: 1.Skills as the proving ground. Post-16 technical education should be devolved to leaders who can commission it against the real strengths of their economy. Andy Burnham has made this case for years. The evidence backs him. 2.Devolved growth needs devolved capital. We called for British Business Bank branches in every mayoral region and a real pipeline of investable propositions. A region with its own growth plan needs a visible route to the money that funds it. 3. That should be part of a rebuild of regional banking. Bring together British Business Bank and Post Office banking hubs to put small business banking on the high street. Radically expand state-backed lending guarantees. Back it up with Community Reinvestment Act to get major banks to lean in. 4.A place-based delivery spine. Mayors should sit inside the national strategy machinery, not next to it. One table, one set of numbers, national and regional leadership together. 5. Shift the capability. Mayors told us their single biggest constraint is in-house capacity. We recommended a secondment pool from the Treasury, the Department for Business and Trade and the British Business Bank, placed directly into mayoral authorities. The argument for devolution has been won. The work now is to make it deliver.show more

Liam Byrne MP

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