Policy experts – including PolicyWISE Director - author new ‘Ending Business as Usual’ options paper
Our Director Dewi Knight is one of 15 leading policy experts who have come together today to propose around 70 ‘radical policy options’ to help the Prime Minister’s ambition to ‘end business as usual’.
In a paper commissioned by Compass, Dewi has co-authored a chapter which recommends a new approach to intergovernmental relations in the UK, and new ideas for devolution in England and for the other UK nations.
Ending Business As Usual: Policy Options for a Progressive Government - Compass
Dewi’s chapter was co-authored with Professor Michael Jacobs, who is also the commissioning editor of this ‘Ending Business as Usual’ policy paper.
On intergovernmental relations, Dewi says:
“None of our governments, including the UK government, can address the profound challenges facing the UK, acting alone. The Prime Minister has recognised this in his commitment to collaboration as the ‘guiding principle’ of his government.
“To make good on this commitment, the Council of the Nations and Regions should be established as a properly cross-governmental body. Its core purpose should be the practice of collaborative governance, with new ways of working in partnership across boundaries to achieve shared policy goals.
“The work programme would learn from experience and best practice, such as Australia’s National Cabinet, and the approach to cross-government policy teams seen in Spain.
“In the first instance it could focus on growth and regional development, ending violence against women and girls, and raising living standards.
“To deliver on an ambitious programme of tackling shared challenges, the Council should have an independent and permanent civil service staff drawn from all the UK’s governments, and an active and continuous work programme on cross-cutting challenges and issues.”
On national devolution in the UK, Dewi says:
“A progressive approach to place-based collaboration across the UK requires Whitehall to view, engage with, and co-operate with the devolved governments not as mere implementors of policy or as competitors, but as partners on shared challenges.
“In ensuring parity of treatment and esteem across the devolved institutions, moves should be made towards a more symmetrical settlement (fiscal, legislative, executive competence), less restrictive devolved government borrowing powers (as a lever for place-based long-term investment, potentially interacting with reform of the Barnett Formula), and strengthening the Sewel Convention.
“Taken together, alongside intergovernmental collaborative governance, these changes would help deliver on the Prime Minister’s commitment that ’the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power are over, for good’.
“They would also help create the conditions for investing in pan-UK relationships organised on the principle of collaboration, towards common goals of good growth, better living standards and public services, and national security.”
The chapter also contains detailed recommendations for the next stage in English devolution.
The paper draws PolicyWISE’s recent research on intergovernmental relations, cross-nation policy learning, and collaborative governance:
From isolation to innovation: a cross-nation agenda for better policy learning
Polling reveals support for Burnham agenda to shift power away from Whitehall