Managing the complex

conurbation

Market, Hierarchy and Networksin the

Greater Manchester City-Region in the recession

StructurePart One (50 mins) 1 Introduction : managing the complex conurbation.2 The urban policy laboratory. 3 Manchester’s LAA4 Localities in the recession. breakPart Two (50 mins)5 Mancunian mechanisms6 Network Analysis for treating governance networks as

networks 7 Summary

Handout

• Table : governance and regeneration

“Fundamental questions of constitutional structures, centre-region relations, institutional co-ordination, and public expenditure… are addressed as the perhaps unglamorous dimensions of sub-national government and governance.” (Pike and Tomaney 2004)

Part One

1.1 The Urban Policy Laboratory1.2 Roles for Localities in the recession

1.1 The Urban Policy Laboratory.

POLICY STRAND 1 Regeneration Policy [Alphabet Soup]

POLICY STRAND 2 The Local Government Modernisation Agenda [turning round the tanker]

POLICY STRAND 3 Performance management measurement, audit and inspection [drowning in documents…]

Joined up government?

POLICY STRAND 1 Regeneration Policy [Alphabet Soup]

• Multiple initiatives • Time scale• Funding • Target regime• Area of benefit• Delivery mechanism / model• Thematic focus• Client group• Governance arrangements• Partnership requirements• “initiativitis”

What is regeneration?

• “’Regeneration seems to offer an almost infinitely inclusive canopy under which all may be persuaded to shelter and find agreement, yet vital issues remain beyond the pale” (Furbey 1999) pg 440

• “…so urban regeneration is in principle a floating signifier but in practice it does not float very far. It is ubiquitously used to a fairly standard set of policy goals and outcomes ”(Lovering 2007) pg 344

Regeneration – Governance

4 phases

HO PSA Delivery

PSA 5

PSA 3

PSA 2 (Joint OCJR)

PSA 1

PSA 4

PSA 7

PSA 6

One City Partnership

(LSP)

Notts Police

GOEM (43Staff)

5 Police Forces; 9 DATs;40 CDRPs; 49 Local Auth’s

ProbationPrisonsNASS ASB PolicingPolicy

PolicingStandards

CrimeReduction Drugs ACDCCU, REU, F

NDCLCJB

9 Area Committees

NOMS

CJS

OCJR CRCSG CommunitiesIND

NottinghamCity Council

Police Authority

Probation Inspectorate

CDRP DATCJIPCompact

CPS

HMICPrisons Inspectorate

Individual Regional Offices

Nott BCU

ProbationService

YOT

Courts

REGIONAL

NATIONAL

LOCAL

HMP

Voluntary & Community Sector

POLICY STRAND 2 The LGMA [turning round the tanker]

LGMA shorthand for policy interventions designed to improve (perceived) issues around

Efficiency

Accountability

Decision making Process

Finance

Functions

drivers and levers

• Change mechanisms = interactions between relevant policy drivers and levers.

• Policy drivers = the general aims of government in specific policy areas

• Policy levers = are the instruments available to government to effect change in public policy and services.

drivers and levers : theory of change

Selection of policy drivers and levers is informed by the interaction of actors exercising political judgement about priorities. As governance systems rely on human interactions attempts at steering are likely to be met with unexpected and unintended though not necessarily unwelcome reactions and outcomes. (CLG, Sullivan 2008)

Tanker in First World War “Razzle-dazzle” camouflage

Strategic manoeuvring…

POLICY STRAND 3 Performance management measurement, audit and inspection [drowning in documents…]

Meanwhile elsewhere in Whitehall…

The Improvement Agenda (close to LGMA but not totally connected)

Empowered the Audit Commission

Waves of improvement

BVPI – Best Value Performance Indicators

CPA – Corporate Performance Assessment

CAA - Comprehensive Area Assessment

The PSA Regime (Public Services Agreements)

Local Government unmoved?

Gordon Brown’s Approach – PSA regime

PSA

• Connecting manifesto to delivery mechanisms of Whitehall

• Connecting to “floor targets”• In some ways odd to have to invent this…• The “machinery of government” is quite

tricky…

PSA match to ministers (2007)Power within the Core Executive I

• Figure 3 Number of PSAs for which each Cabinet Minister is operationally responsible.• Minister Department Number of PSAs• Ed Balls DCFS 5• Jacqui Smith Home Office 4• John Hutton DBERR 3• Hazel Blears DCLG 2• Peter Hain DWP 2• Alan Johnson DH 2• John Denham DIUS 2• Hilary Benn DEFRA 2• Alistair Darling HMT 1• Jack Straw MoJ 1• Ruth Kelly DfT 1• James Purnell DCMS 1• Ed Miliband Cabinet Office 1• Douglas Alexander DFID 1• David Miliband FCO 1• Harriet Harman Government Equalities Office 1

Underlying logic connecting

• PSA regime• RIS • MAAs/EPBs/SCR pilots• LAA regime

Police

Duty on local councils and other local partners to work together to agree a single set of priorities through a Sustainable Community Strategy and a

Local Area Agreement

Three year delivery plan:Local Area

Agreement (LAA)

Council

Local Neighbourhoods

Local Strategic

Partnership

Long term Sustainable Community

Strategy (SCS)

Service Charter

Service Charter

Health Private sector

Community sector

Local Neighbourhoods

Local Partnership governance architecture

Local Area Agreements

Partnership governance mechanism“bastard child” of LPSA and LSPContains many stages of development.

Manchester’s Local Area Agreement 2008/09 – 2010/11

Powerpoint presentation

Manchester’s LAA

• It’s a three-year plan to deliver our Community Strategy• It drives partners to achieve targets related to our priorities• It stimulates innovation• It builds accountability and stronger relationships

• It forms a constructive relationship with the Government

What’s different from the pilot LAA?

• Statutory backing – all partners must ‘have regard’ for the LAA targets

• Broader range of targets – some agreed with the Government and some agreed on local basis

• Funding• Comprehensive Area Agreement: outcome focus

Partnership structure ‘Team Manchester’

Delivering change

Indicators and targets

These are linked to the spines diagram• Level 1 – high-level indicators• Level 2 – indicators most relevant to spines• Level 3 – partners’ key actions • Level 4 – output and process-related actions

Sustaining economic growth

• Access to jobs via transport• Business growth• A green city

Education and employment

• Routes into work for young people• Resident wages, skills and employment• Improving education attainment and attendance• Positive parenting• Health and wellbeing

• Cultural involvement to enable individual change

Neighbourhoods of choice

• Quality sustainable physical environment• Safer communities• Quality and choice of housing• Locally focused services• Sense of place and community pride• Safer, cleaner, greener

Building self-esteem and respect

• Aspiration, wellbeing and happiness• Building social capital• Community cohesion

Partnership delivery

• Innovation – to speed up improvement• Resources – to make full use of all we have• Improve partnership working to do better at:

– Commissioning– Communication– Value led improvement– Partnership governance

Role of elected members• Community leadership• Neighbourhood focus• Thematic leadership• Overview and scrutiny

Measuring Success: State of the City

Manchester’s LAA 2008/09 – 2010/11

www.manchesterpartnership.org.uk

Part 3: Role of localities in the Recession

PolicySNR• Regeneration Framework• Parkinson report • CLG / BIS

Central-Local Policy NetworkCongested terrain!

Think tanks re: recession• LGA from recession to recovery: the local

dimension• CLES toward a new wave of local

economic activism• Work Foundation: Recession and

Recovery: How UK cities can respond and drive the recovery

Role of cities in a recessionDiscuss in pairs/threes for 5 mins…What is the role of a city/locality in the

recession?

None? – let the market do it’s thing?Welfare? role of partners eg. jc+Leadership?Others – want 6 please

Ideopolis - Work Foundation

Barcelona Principles – The Work Foundation

i. Don’t waste the crisis, but respond with leadership and purpose.ii. Make the case for continued public investment and public services and the taxes and other sources of investment required.iii. In the long-term: build local economic strategies which align with long-term drivers and identify future sources of jobs, enterprise, and innovation.iv. In the short-term: focus on retaining productive people, business, incomes, jobs, and investment projects. v. Build the tools and approaches to attract and retain external investment over the long-term.vi. Build genuine long-term relationships with the private sector, trade unions, and other key partners.vii. Take steps to ensure the sustainability and productivity of public works, infrastructure, and major developments/events. viii Local leaders should act purposefully to support their citizens in the face of increased hardship.ix. Local economies have benefitted and should continue to benefit from being open and attractive to international populations and capital.x. Communicate and align with national and other higher tier governments.

LGA ● London is the region most likely to underperform the national

average in a recession, and the South-West the least;

● Major cities outside London such as Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester are likely to do better than the capital.

This research strongly suggests that the most effective way of targeting a response to recession in the places it will make the most difference is to continue with the policies of devolving economic decision-making to which the government has committed itself.

In time of a recession, the need for devolution to sub-regions, including counties, functional economic areas, local council partnersships and individual local authorities becomes more obvious and more urgent.

Role of localities in the recession : political considerations

Part Five : Mancunian Mechanisms

Books • Managing the city: the aims and

impacts of urban policy Brian Turnbull Robson 1987

• Managing the cityeds Liddle, Diamond, Southern 2007

• City of Revolution eds Ward and Peck• How Manchester is managed 1925-1939

Stories of “Mancunian ways”

• Mancunian Ways : the politics of regeneration Robson (Chapter 3 City of Revolution)

• Metropolitan Manoeuvres : making greater Manchester Deas and Ward (Chapter City of Revolution)

• Greater Manchester – ‘up and going’, 2000 Hebbert and Deas

• Greater Manchester : conurbation complexity and local government structure Barlow, 1995

• Manchester: Making it Happen Hebbert, 2009

Think tanks: Manchester• Work Foundation : Ideopolis• Localis : Can Localism Deliver? Lessons

from Manchester• Policy Exchange : Cities Limited • NESTA : Original Modern : Manchester’s

journey to innovation and growth

City publications

What is Manchester?• Political• Economic• Statistical• Administrative• Cultural (music and sport)Construction

A Brand?

Scales of Political representation

• Ward Councillor (backbench/frontline)• City Council Executive (Labour)• MP • Government (Labour)• MEP NW

Regional / City Regional political representatives are proxies.

What is Manchester?

http://www.statistics.gov.uk/geography/changing_geog.asp

Our Changing GeographyThe UK is said to have more administrative boundary

changes per year than the rest of the European Union put together. This section provides further information as follows:Boundary Changes: Reviews the reasons for and processes of electoral ward/division boundary changes.Local Government Restructuring: Reviews major changes to local government structure since the 1960s. Includes information on the 1990s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and details of possible future changes linked to the introduction of regional government.

City / City Regional reification

The manchester case• What are the features of the local governance partnership

architecture in the Greater Manchester city region?• How are existing institutions connected?• What are the connections back to National policy agendas?• What other international models are in play? • Is it unique in the UK? If so in what way? • Are the movers and shakers “the good guys”?

Contention; there is something about manchester ; confidence, autonomy, stability, leadership, assertive bargaining stance with the centre (bombast?) (Robson - Mancunian Ways)

“we use the bits of the SNR which fit our agenda and throw out the bits that don’t”

Features of political landscape in manchester city region

• Helpful in explaining why confident city-regional governance may flourish in Greater Manchester

• Straightforward, horse-trading politics of this…• Traditional Labour authorities (leader of Wigan/AGMA since

1984)• Entrepreneurial authorities (Manchester/Salford)• Lib-Dem oppositional authorities• Role of non-Executive Cllrs• Role of communities/3rd Sector• MPs many with LG background

“we always had better discussions around policy within Labour Group than we do in the PLP…you have to work out how to be effective as an MP whereas in the council your authority is far more direct and tangible”

what have they created?• Using an MAA bidding process (first in the

queue)• Building on AGMA, radically reformed• Incorporating TIF • Linking through to LAA structures• Stretching democratic mandate (!)• Working with business leaders (6/7)

A “Commission” model (QMV, delegated authority comparable to EU commission)

• 7 City Regional Thematic Commissions• Economic one central and fully formed

others immanent (?!)

Compare and contrast with readiness in other MAA areas ?

Organigramme I ; the MAA

Transport Improvement Health Economy Environment Public

Protection

Housing

& Planning

• Interactions between separate tiers

• MAA self organising autonomous governance network

• LAA statutory output based performance framework

How Manchester is managed, 1935

Regional Planning : The most effective planning scheme is one which is comprehensive in character and not limited by the artificial boundary of a local authority’s area. It’s success depends upon (1) securing an area capable of economic development (2) effective joint action with neighbouring authorities

City regional bodies

City Relationships:Economic linkages in Northern city regions

City Regions and the North

LA boundaries within “the North”

The City Regions of the Northern Way

• 8 City Regions (2004)• Took CRDPs • and transformed into

MAAs

Mersey MAA

Merseyside MAA

Leeds Statutory City Region

Part Five : Treating Governance NWs as NWs

reificationCity-regional institution building in Manchester.

A social network analysis approach to the new partnership governance architecture.

James Rees and Nicola HeadlamUniversity of Manchester

November 2008

‘eternal mobility’ in sub-national institutional restructuring

Since 1997 policy discourse has “bounced around” scales eg…

• Neighbourhood (renewal)• Regional (development agencies

etc.)• City Regional • LOCAL??

The effect is fragmented delivery vehicles in competition

“of course The A of the ABI is not the A of the LAA”

Treating complex networks as complex networks!

• From formal network theory – own terminology!!

• Clique governance is presented as ideal for innovation

• The role of brokers /boundary spanners is very important

• SNA ; ideal type clique governance via brokers

Different types of networks

AGMA

SNA Greater Manchester MAA-LAA (accountabilty)

SNA with local government decentred

Summary : Urban Policy

Urban Policy “Laboratory” fast moving and complex

policy areas dynamic and in tension Regeneration and economic developmentLocal Government ModernisationPerformance Management and

Measurement

Summary : Policy mechanisms

• Underlying logics re: fragmentation and strategic oversight in tension with democratic accountability, political oversight show up in various mechanisms

• PSA regime (National)• MAA/EPB/SCR (City Regional)• LAA (Locality plus)

Summary : Recession

• Recession offers new challenges for city and locality leaders

• Barcelona Principles could underpin responses

• As could increased sub-national working

Summary : Manchester

• Manchester Governance is an atypical case

• Current city regional interest builds on longstanding partnership activity

• Greater Manchester City Region and the roles of Manchester Enterprises, the Commission and AGMA have changed rapidly

Summary : City Regions

The rise of the City Region is connected to “a little regional difficulty” from ERAs and the critique of RDAs

They are the preferred sub-national spatial fix of the moment

They look “tory-proof” Leeds is edging ahead of Manchester in

SCR stakes