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1/7 Infuriating language of ‘deal making’ getting lots of comment today. It is not conducive to good, long-term, policy planning or delivery. It’s inevitably short-term and places power at the centre…
2/7 The process of ‘Deal Making’ between the centre and local areas has emerged in the last 10 years. It began in economic development with ‘City Deals’, ‘Growth Deals’, and most recently ‘Town Deals’ but it’s influence has grown…
3/7 ‘Deal Making’ has become the method of devolution – an ask from the local, and a decision from the centre based on a centrally determined set of constraints. It’s not devolution in that sense but a form of delegation…
4/7 The fact this language is now being used to describe how we respond to a public health crisis is pretty disturbing – it’s policy by game theory rather than by evidence.
5/7 To be clear, this is not the fault of the local! In these Deal making scenarios the power sits nationally and that’s where the game rules are set, but…
6/7 It highlights the constitutional weakness of devolution as it stands. The local has to “ask” for things from the centre. It reinforces the centre’s power as a result. Only the centre has the power to ‘Impose Tier 3’ is a classic example…
7/7 This needs a fix – we need a method that actually transfers powers from the centre. The problem, short-term, is you’re always incentivised to ‘do a Deal’ of delegation rather than fight for the long-term gain of actual devolution. We're stuck in a cycle of this...
