There was a need to bring in “some external intervention” to Liverpool Council but frustration remains over the speed and length over the government’s presence in the city according to Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Communities.
Whitehall appointed commissioners have been in situ at the Cunard Building for more than 18 months now following the damning Caller Report in 2021 which highlighted the shortcomings within the city council. In December, the five-strong team said they were “optimistic” about the city’s direction of travel, despite the appointment of a new finance commissioner and a £73m funding blackhole to fill.
Speaking to the ECHO on Liverpool, Levelling Up and the Labour Party, Lisa Nandy MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, said the party also recognised the need for the city to be supported in some way. She said: “We haven't challenged the idea that it was important to bring in some external intervention, in order to deal with and stabilise the situation in Liverpool, it was clear that there needed to be some kind of intervention.
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“The problem is how long this has now gone on for and the sense of drift that has been able to bake in because of the merry go round of successive Secretaries of State, there's real frustration, particularly amongst the city's MPs and councillors about not really being able to get progress on central government funding bids, because of the drift in governance arrangements.” Ms Nandy, the MP for Wigan since 2010, said she has worked closely with the city’s Labour group and recognised their “huge desire” to try and get the city “out of this arrangement and move forwards.”
She added: “The big problem that Liverpool has, though, is the amount of money that it's about to pick up from its budget, having dealt with a decade of austerity already.” A fresh update is expected from the commissioners on progress at the city council later this month and Ms Nandy paid tribute to Mayor Joanne Anderson for her handling of the authority’s fortunes.
She said: “I didn't know Joanne very well before she came in as Mayor, but she's had one hell of a job on her hands and I think she's navigated it with great grit and determination for this city. This city has never had the diverse representation that reflects the people of Liverpool, but it is starting to get that now. Kim Johnson, the city's first black MP and Joanne, a great figurehead for this city.”
Ms Nandy said the new Labour group leader, Cllr Liam Robinson, had come in with a “fresh sense of energy to take us through what's going to be difficult next chapter, but one I hope that a Labour government is going to be able to help with significantly.” With the city awaiting the third commissioners’ report, it could be forgiven for feeling somewhat apprehensive about the future.
Ms Nandy, who missed out on the leadership of her party almost three years ago, said the “force of the city” could be unleashed on the country moving forward. She said: “I think all the potential that this city has is going to be on display to the rest of the country.
“This is a city that's never ever dimmed its ambitions even through the most difficult times. When I was growing up in the 80s in Manchester, there was a great rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester but through the dockers strike, the spirit of this city has always been on display.
“My hope is that with new leadership and a partnership with the next Labour government, what you're going to see is the real creativity and force of the city unleashed for the country.” The financial fortunes of Liverpool and the wider city region took a knock last month when the government turned down the majority of Merseyside’s bids for Levelling Up funding.
For Huyton in Knowsley, it was the fifth time it had been rejected by Whitehall and is an ongoing source of frustration for the local authority. Reflecting on the government’s allocations, Ms Nandy expressed her own incredulity.
She said: “It is completely inexplicable why somewhere like Huyton would miss out on their bid when other parts of the country were granted. There's no rhyme or reason to it at all.
“It's just absolutely clear that we can't go on with this absurd system where ministers pick winners and losers from behind the desk in Whitehall. Not very long ago, Steve (Rotheram, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor) took me over to see Shakespeare North, which is the most amazing venue.
“I mean, it was vibrant. It was buzzing, it completely helped to transform the area into what local people knew it could be and it's done it because of strong local vision, a Mayor that backed them, and despite the government, not because of it.
“That is what real levelling up looks like.” She added that if the government was serious about levelling up - or gauging up depending on your point of view - “they would hand powers and resources over to local leaders so that they could drive that change themselves, rather than forcing us to carry on going begging cap in hand down to Westminster and Whitehall.”
Why then have areas like Huyton, West Everton and Liscard on the Wirral missed out compared to Rishi Sunak’s wealthy North Yorkshire constituency? Ms Nandy said: “I think at the outset, there was definitely a bias towards places that were seen as critical to the Conservative Party at the next general election.
“I think now it's just chaos. I think this is a government that has completely run out of energy and ideas, they can't agree amongst themselves, and they can't really agree what they think Levelling up is supposed to achieve or even whether they should pursue it or not.
“I think we'll continue to see more of this.” One of the areas that is being hotly debated in town halls across the region in the next few weeks is how councils are funded, with Liverpool in particular facing a huge financial abyss to bridge.
Last year the government made it easier for local authorities to increase the rate of council tax without the need for a referendum. Labour’s former Shadow Foreign Secretary said rate collection was not the silver bullet for everywhere.
She said: “The government is very keen on mayors. They're keen on big, shiny infrastructure projects.
“They're not keen on talking about the way in which councils across the country, both Conservatives and Labour have been hollowed out systematically over the last decade, leaving them unable to do anything more than just hold on to very basic services that they're under a legal obligation to provide.
“If you want to build strong economies, thriving, inclusive communities, beautiful places, you need to have the capacity in local government in order to be able to do it. The over reliance on raising council tax in order to block the funding gap is a huge problem for places like Liverpool, because there isn't a huge tax base to draw from.
“If you're in Rishi Sunak constituency or Michael Gove's constituency can you raise council tax by 1% and you make a lot more money than if you raise council tax in Wigan or Liverpool. We've got to move away from that, we need longer term funding settlements for councils with far more certainty and ability to plan and we need to start rebuilding our local economies and letting councils keep more of that money.”
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