Devolution “should encourage places with the freedom to shape their own future”, the LGA’s annual conference heard.
Sir James Cleverly, Shadow Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, told delegates in Bournemouth that devolution should be about creating opportunities for growth, not just redistributing funding or devolving responsibilities.
“I recognise there will always be places that need support, and they should get that support,” he said.
“But that cannot become our model for growth, because no place has ever become more prosperous simply because someone transferred money to it from somewhere else.
“Places become prosperous because they create opportunity, because they attract investment, because businesses choose to locate there, because people choose to build their lives there.
“That should be the purpose of devolution – not simply devolving responsibility, not simply redistributing resources, but giving every part of the country the chance to become stronger in its own right, economically successful, economically sustainable.”
To do that, the incentives need to be right, he argued – so if a council unlocks inward investment, it should “see the reward for that work”, and not locally collected taxes “handed straight to Westminster”.
Sir James added: “If we get that right, we will not simply have devolved power, we will have created a stronger country, a country where more communities stand on their own two feet, where more places thrive through their own effort, and where local success becomes national success.”