RE: NO 10 Coronation street.....29 Jun 2026 23:47
It will indeed take years to fully enact and is certainly not as simple as some suggest. It would likely take longer than a single parliamentary term, opening up the risk of being dismantled by a successor government with a different vision. If Labour fails to win the next election to see it through to completion, that remains a massive structural risk. However, a significant amount of movement away from Westminster and into the hands of regional mayors could actually be achieved over a shorter timeframe. Because these mayoral authorities already have established administrative frameworks and facilities online, it would largely be a matter of expanding and scaling up what they already have in place.
When it comes to the regional expansion of education, training, housing, crime, welfare, health, and industry, these services are often better managed from a local position than from a central hub. Specific regional needs and pressures are easily missed at a national level, whereas they are clearly defined and visible on the ground.
Critics often suggest this approach creates a postcode lottery and that areas closest to the regional hubs will receive the lion's share of the benefit. Yet, ironically, those critics usually come from the very areas that currently receive the majority of national investment and are perhaps more concerned about losing their preferred status. While the challenge of resource distribution will never disappear entirely, spreading the decision-making power across multiple hubs throughout the country is a far better starting point than leaving everything concentrated in a single central location.
Business-based leaders still need politicians, as that is where much of their funding originates, as well as advice. Several mayors do come from a business background rather than a political one. For example, Andy Street (West Midlands) was formerly CEO of John Lewis, and his successor, Richard Parker, was a strategy consultant and senior partner at PwC. Ben Houchen (Tees Valley) co-founded a manufacturing and distribution business and worked as a commercial lawyer before entering regional politics, while David Skaith (York and North Yorkshire) was a small business owner and chaired his local High Street Business Association before being elected.
However, whilst business leaders are highly beneficial when it comes to understanding commercial needs, public administration is an entirely different beast, and back end operations are rarely their primary strength. Many corporate leaders excel at sales, vision, and organisation, but they rely heavily on specialist legal, financial, and production teams to handle the actual delivery. To run an entire region requires far more than just commercial instinct; it demands massive operational and bureaucratic competence which is precisely why so many ambitious companies fall down on their back-end execution and ultimately go bust.
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