UNIVERSITY NEWS LAST UPDATED : 19 SEPTEMBER 2014
"The whole independence debate has focused attention on the need for the UK to be a far less London-centric country and for powers to be distributed more widely across our over-centralised country," said Professor Cliff Allan, Vice-Chancellor at Birmingham City University.
"Birmingham and the West Midlands are proud contributors to the UK but our region also has its own distinct economic priorities which need to be better reflected in how money investment decisions are made.
"For example, Birmingham has the youngest population of any city in Western Europe, as well as a proud manufacturing tradition, yet we cannot always say that these issues are mirrored by decisions taken in Westminster.
"Birmingham is the largest local authority in Europe yet its powers and its budget raising capacity in no way reflect its size, as witnessed this week with news that a further 6,000 jobs are to be cut, in part because of the ongoing tensions between central and local funding.
"It is one reason why we need to further explore the vision of Michael Heseltine, a Birmingham City University honorary doctorate, who spent a lot of time here in the city developing proposals to transfer £49 billion from central government to the English regions.
"Major initiatives such as HS2 are welcome in opening up our country but such infrastructure projects need to be allied to changes in the way decisions are made, whether about investment, skills, jobs or education.
"People in the English regions have traditionally been reluctant to demand elected assemblies or mayors but the Scottish referendum campaign has shown how a genuine debate about devolving power can increase understanding of the benefits this can bring. It is time to start a genuine debate about more regional powers across all four parts of the UK.”