Labour supports devolved funding

Leader of the Labour Party, Ed Miliband, has said that he plans to ‘herald the biggest devolution of power to England’s great towns and cities in a hundred years’ as the next stage of Labour’s plan to lower the cost of living. He highlighted the interim conclusions of Andrew Adonis’s Growth Review, which recommended the end of centralisation by at least doubling the level of devolved funding. It would see control of the equivalent of more than £20bn handed to City and County Regions over the course of a parliament. As part of the Party’s proposals, those regions that meet strict tests established by the Adonis Review, will be given new powers over transport and housing infrastructure funding, as well as for the Work Programme and skills.