England's big cities plea for new powers for provinces

LONDON - England's eight biggest provincial cities joined forces on Thursday to call on British Chancellor George Osborne and the British government to grant them freedom from central to control their own destinies.

The eight cities and their surrounding city regions cover a population of 16 million and generate 27 percent of the Britain's economy.

Handing over local powers and freedoms will deliver 1.16 million new jobs and add 222 billion pounds (375 billion US dollars) to the national economy by 2030, they say in a joint plea to the British government.

That level of growth, they say, is equivalent to the economy of the whole of Denmark.

"Unlike other countries, our (English) cities only control about five percent of the total tax raised in them. Tax retained at the local or regional level is 10 times that in Canada, 7.5 in the U.S., six in Germany and five times that across the OECD on average," they argue in their communique, also delivered to Danny Alexander MP, Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Shadow Chancellor, Labour's Ed Balls.

The eight - Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield - today announce the establishment of a 'Cities for Business Partnership', aimed at creating jobs and investment outside London and the South East of England. Joining the leaders of the eight cities in the partnership are the chairs of the eight sub-regional enterprise partnerships in each of the city regions.

Their communique to the Chancellor calls for new powers and freedoms to create jobs, growth and investment across England's biggest cities. They also want more taxes raised locally to be handed back to the regions.

In their Joint Statement the eight cities urge the national government to: "Join with us in a shared vision for a different urban future, one of stronger growth, more jobs, more investment, with England's cities able to compete on a level playing field abroad."

"Work with us to rebalance the national economy through a new relationship based on trust and empowerment, freeing city and business leaders to create the jobs and growth that both our local economies and the country needs."

It said :"We all know that London needs to succeed, but we also need to do more to unlock the economic potential of other cities. Devolution is happening for Scotland and Wales. It's time for more devolution directly to cities, economic powerhouses who together deliver far more for our economy."

"Instead of cities bidding against each other, we must do more to empower democratic and business leaders to work together, to take on the international competition."

"Government has challenged us to create growth. We ask that Government supports us with the right tools to do the job and we will take the responsibility, get on and deliver private sector growth, stronger visitor economies and the key industry jobs to go with them."

The eight English cities want Britain's three big political parties - Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats - to make commitments to the demands in their manifestos ahead of next year' s British general election.

One of the city leaders, Liverpool's Mayor Joe Anderson said on Thursday: "We desperately need greater freedom to control our own destiny. I know my city far better than anyone in Whitehall and if Liverpool was able to retain more of the taxes it raises we could use them to generate the right skills to enable people to get jobs,

attract more investment and give more support to business. At the moment 95 percent of taxes raised in Liverpool are sent to Government when cities in Germany, Sweden, Canada and the US keep up to 10 times more. We need more decentralisation if we are to compete globally." (1 pound = 1.69 US dollars)