The Liverpool City Region has undertaken a Governance Review to further strengthen the delivery of strategic economic development, regeneration and transport to increase economic growth and jobs, and provide greater transparency.
The councils, (Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral), Merseytravel and the Local Enterprise Partnership believe that the the current way of delivering these can be improved to accelerate economic growth.
Based on the current available evidence, this has led to a preferred option being recommended by the Liverpool City Region Cabinet which could see a “Combined Authority” being set up. This would strategically lead work on economic development, transport and employment and skills in the City Region to support jobs and growth.
A Combined Authority would not mean the creation of a “Super-Council” – it is about formalising the existing positive informal arrangements and being able to draw-down powers and resources from Central Government for local use.
It would provide clear leadership and greater transparency, while creating a legal entity which would be in a position to attract funding and devolved powers from Government.
Many other areas across the country are also pursuing changes to their governance arrangements and this recommendation would enable the Liverpool City Region to compete with them.
Two documents have been produced which will be available to download from the Local Authority and Merseytravel websites. These are:
A Governance Review, which looks at how functions are organised at the moment, reviews the options for change and recommends that a Combined Authority is consulted upon
A Draft Scheme, which sets out the possible functions of a Liverpool City Region Combined Authority
A list of Frequently Asked Questions about the Review
The next stage of the process is to collect feedback from stakeholders on the review of strategic governance and the potential operation of a possible Combined Authority as part of the ongoing review process. This will run between August 2 and September 6, 2013, and stakeholders are invited to send their feedback to lcr.governance@knowsley.gov.uk.
Following this consultation period, a final recommendation will come back to individual Cabinet and Council meetings in September, and if agreed by all City Region Councils, a formal submission will be made to Government on September 30.
The documents can be viewed at :
http://liverpool.gov.uk/council/consultation/liverpool-city-region-review-of-strategic-governance-consultation/
