SCOTLAND must move forward from the independence referendum and hand more powers to cities and metropolitan areas, the leader of the country's largest council has claimed.
The comments by Frank McAveety, leader of Glasgow City Council, come as the heads of the UK's major cities use the first anniversary of the referendum to call for the devolution of more powers from London and Edinburgh.
The Core Cities Cabinet, which is made up of the elected city Leaders and Mayors of Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield, met in Cardiff where the call for further devolution was made.
Mr McAveety, who did not attend, said the new focus 12 months on should be on "rebalancing the British economy".
He said: “Glasgow is the powerhouse of the Scottish economy and should be given the power to decide more things locally.
“Devolving powers to the UK’s Core Cities will deliver better public services, recognising the different needs of communities and delivering services in a joined up way.
“Merely transferring powers between one parliament and another does not advance the cities agenda."
City of Cardiff Council leader Phil Bale said: “One year on from the Scottish independence referendum we want to clearly state that the best way to reboot our local economies, and rebalance the British economy, is to give more power and responsibility to cities and city-regions.
“But this is about more than just economic growth. Austerity has seen our ability to deliver services undermined. "Many ordinary people feel under assault. At the same time the idea of a Westminster government knowing what is best for everyone is being challenged."
The UK’s core cities account for 25% of the economy, although output per capita remains below the national and EU average in each city bar one.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel