Glasgow Needs a Wider Region for Investment, Report Suggests

Okay, so Kelly wrote about Glasgow in The Herald today. He thinks merging Glasgow with nearby councils will face resistance. But, he notes a structure kind of already exists.

The Glasgow City Region Cabinet includes eight local councils. These are East and West Dunbartonshire, and East Renfrewshire. Glasgow City, Inverclyde, North and South Lanarkshire, and Renfrewshire are also included. These councils cover a key economic area.

Council leaders get together and agree on economic and social projects and have spent over one billion pounds. However, the current Cabinet lacks power to actually do things.

The councils separately manage local services. East Renfrewshire Council excels, for example; a report called their services ‘high-performing’. We shouldn’t just throw that away.

We should keep the local councils. We can then build a stronger metro cabinet on top. This new cabinet would handle important economic things. Infrastructure, planning, skills, and transport would be included. Business support and Scottish Enterprise budgets could join too.

English cities are using similar setups. We’re stuck with small, poor councils. Too many unelected groups stifle local ideas.

Andy Burnham succeeded in Greater Manchester. He leads an executive with council leaders. People think an elected mayor is necessary. Kelly suggests eight members elected by the people. These members would focus on the Authority as a whole.