A new Labour government would give all towns and cities in England new powers and funding to boost local economies, deliver thousands of new homes and create high-quality jobs, Keir Starmer will announce. In the biggest expansion of devolution since Labour was last in power, he will pledge that councils and combined authorities would get more control over housing and planning, skills, energy and transport of the kind currently held by London, the West Midlands and Greater Manchester. “If we want to challenge the hoarding of potential in our economy then we must win the war against the hoarders in Westminster. Give power back and put communities in control,” Starmer will tell party activists at their annual conference.
“An economy that works for the whole country is what the British people want. The Tories know that. They stood at this crossroads before. They called it levelling up. But as soon as they counted their votes, they turned back.” In his speech to Labour conference, potentially the last before a general election, Starmer will set his sights on at least two terms in power in an attempt to rescue a country “ruined” by 13 years of Conservative rule. The Labour leader will promise a “decade of national renewal”, an indication that he believes his party will be in power until the mid-2030s, although he will acknowledge that some voters still need to be given a reason to back him when the country goes to the polls. Starmer’s devolution plans, which Labour aides say would give towns and cities the tools they need to develop their own long-term growth plans, mean that local leaders could request more powers – with a presumption they would be granted if they can demonstrate a strong record on managing public money. There could also be an expansion of the combined authorities model across England, with other groups of local councils working together to deliver key public services in their region. They would be handed Whitehall department-style funding settlements for housing investment, bringing together existing schemes and picking their own priorities in areas such as affordable housing, brownfield remediation and regeneration. Mayors would get more control of strategic planning in their areas, while local authorities would be able to keep more of the money they raised through additional development, including residential and commercial sites. Among the most potentially transformative elements of the plan is the proposal to let local authorities run their own local buses, reversing the so-called deregulation nearly 40 years ago, where services were put in the hands of private companies. In recent months, Greater Manchester and Liverpool have been able to take control of bus services again, allowing them to set fares, routes and service levels, and also to integrate these with other local transport. Currently, smaller councils without combined status are not allowed to do this, which would change under the devolution plans, helping them to plan bus services around new homes and other infrastructure. Starmer will announce local power plans as part of GB Energy, a publicly owned clean energy company, under which residents would benefit from about 20,000 community energy projects such as small-scale wind and solar farms and heat generation schemes, giving them cheaper bills and so – Labour hopes – a stake in the developments. The Labour leader will also give all metro mayors and combined authorities powers over adult education, something already the case in 10 areas across England including London, Greater Manchester and the West Midlands. The plan will involve mayors and the combined authorities playing a central role in turning some further education colleges into so-called technical excellence colleges, a new type of institution aimed at providing local areas with specific skills. Local firms could invest in the colleges, helping design courses to match their need. Universities will be drafted in to improve a system known as local skills improvement plans, which already liaise with employers about the skills needed in the area, or potentially required in the future. Starmer will signal that he will resist further tax rises while people’s living standards are squeezed. “We should never forget that politics should tread lightly on people’s lives, that our job is to shoulder the burden for working people – carry the load, not add to it,” he will say. His speech will echo the conference slogan – “let’s get our future back” – promising that his government would “take care of the big questions” so working people have “freedom to enjoy what they love” with “more time, more energy, more possibility, more life”. “That’s what getting our future back really means,” he will say. “It boils down to this: can we look the challenges of this age squarely in the eye and amidst all the change and insecurity find the hunger to win new opportunities and the strength to conserve what is precious.” Labour began its conference buoyed up by byelection success in Rutherglen and Hamilton West and insiders are hopeful of picking up dozens more seats from the SNP at the general election – something that could help Starmer overturn a still sizeable Tory majority in Westminster. “For the first time in a long time we can see a tide that is turning,” he will say. “Four nations that are renewing. Old wounds of division – exploited by the Tories and the SNP – beginning to heal.” Starmer has faced criticism that Labour has benefited from voters being disaffected with the Tories, rather than any strong desire to see him in No 10. However, senior aides said his speech would answer the question: “If not them, why us?” “People are looking to us because they want our wounds to heal and we are the healers,” he will say. “People are looking to us because these challenges require a modern state and we are the modernisers. People are looking to us because they want us to build a new Britain and we are the builders.”