University of Manchester experts amongst the top cited for the Political Quarterly this year

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A research paper written by University of Manchester experts in public policy and economics is among the top cited articles for The Political Quarterly in 2022. The article explores the question of devolution in England in light of the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on local government.

The research funded by the Nuffield Foundation is a collaboration between Professor David Richards and Dr Samuel Warner from the University of Manchester Department of Politics, Professor Diane Coyle from the University of Cambridge, and Professor Martin J. Smith from the University of York.

In this research, the authors argue that the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges faced by regional and local government in responding to the pandemic shed light on the necessity to revise the current devolution model.

In the paper, they outline that the current asymmetric nature of power relations between the Treasury, based in Westminster, and the local governments do not give the latter the flexibility to react to crises or plan for future recovery as we have seen during the pandemic and its aftermath. They are supported by findings from the Institute for Fiscal Studies arguing that poor-quality and often out-dated data led to an over-general assessment of needs when allocating emergency grants to local authorities early in the pandemic.

In place of this system, the authors make the case for a reset to the current UK political system including greater political and fiscal autonomy for local government. They argue that the relative success of local government to come up with effective place-informed solutions during the pandemic despite the limitation mentioned above illustrates the benefits this change would bring about. While the UK is still feeling the effects of the pandemic, political and fiscal devolution is necessary to give local authorities the autonomy needed to respond rapidly to the needs of the citizens they serve and act as the drivers for the economic recovery of the country.

Professor David Richards said about the research: “Both the current Government and Labour Opposition are prioritising the need to improve UK economic growth and productivity. A key issue must be to address the Treasury’s ‘command-and-control’ model - the case for which we clearly set out in this Political Quarterly article drawing from our Nuffield Foundation funded research.”

This paper is part of a wider research project funded by the Nuffield Foundation: ‘Public Expenditure Planning and Control in Complex Times: A Study of Whitehall Departments’ Relationship to the Treasury (1993-Present)’. This project, led by Professor David Richards, explores the tension between the centralised Treasury and the Whitehall Departments: Education, Work and Pensions, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice.

You can access the article here.