Liverpool's metro mayor unveils 10-point plan to transform city region
Steve Rotheram's plan focuses on transport, building new homes & tackling homelessness.
Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has set out his ambitious vision for the future with ten major new policy pledges.
Describing the devolution process as a journey not a destination, he said that the Leaders of the region’s six districts had not created a Combined Authority merely to access relatively modest additional resources, but to deliver transformational change.
He's today unveiling a ten-point plan to transform the city region:
Steve Rotheram said:
“If trains, docks and canals made us the gateway to the First Industrial Revolution, then world-class connectivity and a plentiful supply of predictable renewable energy can make us the digital gateway to the Fourth. Faster speed, greater capacity and green energy will not only enable us to grow our own digital and technology sectors, it will make us a magnet for investment for global companies wanting the best connections and a carbon neutral energy solution.”
Amongst a series of other radical policy pledges, the Metro Mayor announced:
• Plans to create a unified and properly resourced agency to capitalise on Liverpool’s positive global brand, marketing the City Region internationally and providing one front door for all those seeking to invest and do business here.
• A pledge to deliver a skills revolution by lobbying the Government so that the underspend from the National Apprenticeship Levy will be spent locally to roll-out degree-level apprenticeships and create a single UCAS-style city region-wide portal for apprentices.
• A major initiative to tackle the City Region housing shortage by building 25,000 new homes before 2022 in the right places and with a variety of types and tenures to ensure everyone has access to a decent and affordable home.
• Tackle homelessness by working with Government to fund a trail-blazing Housing First approach to make sure new homes are made available to those in greatest need as quickly as possible end the scandal of rough sleeping in Liverpool City Region.
• Adopt a brownfield first approach to new housing development by publishing the first ever City Region Brown Field Register, and lobbying the Chancellor to give the area a Stamp-Duty holiday with funds being recycled into remediating brownfield, making them available for new homes.
• Backing up the £460 million investment in new rolling stock for Merseyrail by exploring how devolution powers and bus regulation can be best used to create a fully integrated public transport system for a dynamic and growing City Region.
• Make access to public transport more streamlined and customer-friendly by rebranding and remodelling the current Walrus card to make the City Region a UK exemplar for smart ticketing and new payment technologies.
• Making cross-river transport and movement easier and more affordable by delivering on an election pledge to create a more affordable Fast Tag for Mersey Tunnel users, and announcing the commissioning of the design for a new state of the art Mersey Ferry.
• Setting out the City Region’s future devolution ambitions and begin discussion about how the City Region might to integrate Fire and Rescue, Waste Disposal and powers of the Police and Crime Commissioner into a future Combines Authority Structure..
Explaining that devolution was an opportunity that we simply could not afford to squander, Steve Rotheram said;
“The simple argument for devolution is that local people who are locally accountable know better than Whitehall what our area needs, but it is also about recognising that in an increasingly competitive and changing world, six districts with a population of 1.5 million can be more successful and stronger together.”