“The average civil servant thinks that cities only ever ask for one of three things in devolution deals: things they can already do, things that don’t make any difference, and things they bloody well can’t have.”
That’s an opening line I often use when speaking on devolution. There is more than a hint of truth in this observation borne from my years of experience with devolution-free devolution deals. Even Greater Manchester, now a poster-child for the government’s devolution agenda, was until recently a serial devolution failure. Despite endless negotiations of local public service agreements, local area agreements and a host of other agreements, there was no devolution.