Member Article

A city apart: Should London get more devolved powers?

The question of greater autonomy and more devolved powers for London has become one of the foremost issues on the lips of Londoner, policymakers and businesspeople since the EU referendum.

The issue has been catapulted to the top of the mayor’s agenda due to the very real threat that the capital’s reputation on a global hub for finance, tech and a whole host of other specialisms could be under threat following Brexit.

While petitions for London’s independence are fanciful at best, the call for more wide-ranging devolved powers for England’s capital have taken on greater urgency as the economic and political circumstances have changed drastically since June’s surprise out vote.

It is an idea that has the backing of powerful figures in Theresa May’s government, including the Chancellor Philip Hammond and the Secretary for Business Greg Clark, and will have a sympathetic ally in the figure of Boris Johnson.

London already has greater devolved powers through the Greater London Assembly than any other comparable body in England, so many will be questioning why the city should be granted even more autonomy.

However, as the EU referendum brutally demonstrated, the country itself is becoming increasingly divided along stark generational and social faultlines.

The young vs the old, the rich against the poor, the supposed metropolitan ‘elites’ thumbing their noses at the ‘provincial’ xenophobic post-industrial wastelands.

While such divisions are exaggerated and played up by an unscrupulous political class (and an even more unscrupulous media), there is a sense that London’s relationship with the rest of the country is still defined by these ever-deepening fault lines.

It is, and has been for many years, a city apart. A city with a unique cultural, economic and demographic bedrock, and even more acute and singular problems in housing, wealth disparity and poverty.

Not to mention the oft-repeated fact that London raises 30% of all tax in the UK; for better or worse it is the country’s economic powerhouse that will soon boast a population in excess of 10 million.

Attesting to the capital’s bargaining power is the fact that the push for greater autonomy is being referred to in its exact terms - devolution - and does not require a gimmicky buzz word or marketing budget attached to it like the Northern Powerhouse.

On paper the city is in a strong position to argue the case for greater powers and, in the inevitable economic turmoil following Brexit, the country itself has a greater need than ever before for a strong, confident, outward-looking capital.

The danger is that in granting London even greater autonomy it further entrenches the disparity between it and the rest of the country, and serves to play into the hands of those who sneer at ‘metropolitan’ and ‘media savvy’ denizens of a city divorced from the reality of day-to-day life in the rest of the country.

But London’s problems are the UK’s problems, and vice versa. Zero-hours contracts, an unsecure rental class and spiralling property prices are just as much an issue in London as they are everywhere else.

As such, there needs to be a distinction made between the very real disparity between the capital and the rest of the UK, and London’s right to have greater control over where taxes are spent and which skills are prioritised.

Khan has been keen to point out that this is not the city grasping for an even greater slice of the pie than it already has, more that it is a case of desiring greater control over the slice it already has.

It is clear that if #LondonIsOpen, as one of the Mayor’s social media campaigns currently professes, then it also means that #TheUKIsOpen too.

And to ensure that London remains open for business (and investment and growth and exports and tech and skills) then it simply must be given greater scope to govern itself.