Jim McMahon

And I think that that instance, demonstrates the point like you won't be allowed to have a four-day week yeah so that's kind of the in many ways that's the reverse of constitution if um uh the constitutional entrenchment position and it's saying we want to have stronger central oversight Now, again, coming back to your question of whether some of these things can be achieved by different means, there is obviously an alternative case for a strong centre as well, for saying that you need strong central government and strong central government is more important than strong local government.

I know some people do actually argue that, but I feel that what's really important about this looking forward is... setting setting the ground rules for the debate what do we think central government should do what do we think local government should do and how do we design a system around those uh objectives and i think what i would certainly like to see i mean i don't think necessarily gonna see this within the next 10 years but i would like to see something that starts from first principles And I think Jim McMahon said this a couple of years ago during his first stint at the Ministry, that we need to sort out what it is that central government is responsible for and what it is that local government is responsible for.

So if we're moving down the Andy Burnham constitutionalisation route, it ought in the first instance to take that into account.

Looking 10 years ahead, I would, and I think almost regardless of which party or parties win the next election, I would expect the city region model to remain, possibly to deepen further.

But I would anticipate that before Christmas, we will see some significant movement in Lancashire towards the model of a mayor.

What I also hope happens, and I don't know whether this is going to be the case or not, But Jim McMahon should use this pause of local government reorganisation to look at the whole situation of what unitary councils are going to exist.

Because my fear remains that if they go with those four unitaries, you're going to have four failed councils in Lancashire very quickly.

They're simply not big enough.

Mm.

And, um, Jim McMahon, the minister, says quite clearly that he believes the building blocks of devolution, of mayoral strategic authorities are unitary councils.

Mm.

And yet, when I challenged him about that just a couple of weeks ago, he said, "Yes, but of course, you know, you've, you've got devolution, um, without, without local government, uh, reorganization."

Following the decision to pause local government reorganisation as a warning the review must lead to a material change in direction or flagship reforms and devolution will be undermined.

It's come from the County Council Network in a letter to the local government minister, Jim McMahon, with the CCN saying that without a new approach emerging following the pause, a more costly and fragmented system will emerge that is less effective than the current two-tier structures.

The Oxygen village of Piddington has voted to become an independent state, following government plans to house over 1,000 asylum seekers in a nearby former military base.

Andy Burnham says the government are trying to ensure a fair plan.

So what's the timetable for this review?

Well, Rayner said in the Commons that as an immediate step, she had asked the local government minister, Jim McMahon, to undertake what she described as a rapid review of the current LGR program, including, quote, "the position of 20 areas." She said she hoped the review would take weeks rather than months and said that local elections scheduled for next May would go ahead based on existing council boundaries.

So this is a very big announcement, and it seems to come as a bit of a surprise for a lot of people in the sector.

But had it been trailed at all beforehand?

Under the government's plans, local politicians in England would be able to introduce an uncapped tourist tax, charged as a percentage of the cost of overnight accommodation.

A local government minister, Jim McMahon, said it would benefit tourism hotspots by generating extra cash, which would be invested into amenities.

Strategic authorities will be required to consult before introducing a visitor levy.

This will inform their decision on whether to introduce the levy, how much it would cost, and how revenues would then be spent.

And that wasn't at the by-election.

but you know what, there were some serious concerns and Jim McMahon was there actually and he's a neighbouring MP and we'd been discussing there'd been a lot of road traffic deaths in our local area and he's our Greater Manchester Mayor and I'd also discussed an issue around the Nova exhibition that had been here in London and about trying to bring that to Greater Manchester to talk about what happened on the 7th of October and the links to what terrorism do to people especially as it was a concert.

So we did.

We had a lot of conversation.