29 Jul 2026
By Stuart Patrick, Chief Executive, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce
The Prime Minister’s passion for regional devolution is posing an urgent dilemma for Glasgow Chamber of Commerce members. Scotland’s major cities are at risk of falling well behind England’s city regions in both powers and access to investment. How will our major cities compete in the battle for private investment and talent attraction if no agreement is reached between the Scottish and UK Governments on how far city region empowerment should progress in Scotland?
In March 2014, I attended a Centre for London event launching a pamphlet written by Greg Clark, the urban economist, and Greg Clark, then MP and Minister for Cities in the Cameron government. It was no gimmick: the primary theme was how badly the UK’s economic productivity was affected by the poor performance of the major cities outside London. At that time cities from Birmingham to Glasgow were recording productivity below the national average. In no other major European economy was that the case. It was not only the capital city that performed well – the next largest cities were also exceeding national averages.
The Clarks argued that instead of treating our cities as problems requiring management from Westminster they should be empowered regionally as engines of national growth.
At the same time Glasgow City Council was negotiating the first City Deal outside England which secured £1 billion of funding from the UK and Scottish Governments. It was an important moment that brought together the eight local authorities that make up Glasgow City Region to plan the region’s economic growth.
In November of that same year, Greater Manchester went a step further and agreed to introduce a directly elected mayor in return for powers over regional economic growth including transport, planning, housing and skills.
Since then Manchester has secured several further devolution agreements culminating in the Trailblazer Devolution Deal which in 2025/26 provided the city region with an annual ‘integrated settlement’ of £630 million. Manchester can spend that cash on growing its economy as it sees fit.
Over that same period Glasgow City Region has had much less empowerment. Yes, there have been several pots of money awarded in addition to the City Deal including a £160m Investment Zone, £43m in an Innovation Accelerator Programme and, most recently, £50m of Local Innovation Partnership funding. Decisions have been made locally to invest that money in growing the region’s advanced manufacturing, life science and digital industries with business leadership consulted on each occasion.
But notably, Greater Manchester received every one of these investments too. The difference is not simply the amount of funding available, but the greater powers and flexibility Greater Manchester has to determine its own investment priorities and direct resources towards them. There is no doubt that devolution to Greater Manchester – and to other regions including the West Midlands – has moved at a much faster pace than in Glasgow.
Now Prime Minister Andy Burnham has set up No 10 in the North and is due to announce the details of how a share of income tax receipts will be passed over to England’s city mayors.
How should Scotland respond ? Professor Sir Anton Muscatelli, distinguished economist, former Principal of the University of Glasgow and current President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has made several recommendations arguing that Scotland is one of the most centralised countries in Europe and that more powers should sit with regional partnerships allowing those partnerships to have genuine influence over investment priorities, skills policy, innovation funding and transport infrastructure. He is not alone in making this case. The Centre for Cities has made very similar calls specifically arguing that Glasgow City Region is under-performing by £7 billion per annum on a £50 billion current output. That gap is by far the biggest in Scotland.
At Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, our focus is on how greater devolution could secure the investment priorities the Chamber’s governing Council has agreed are needed to grow Glasgow’s economy. Would greater devolution make a difference? The answer is unequivocally yes. Skills provision, regional transport infrastructure and industry cluster growth are all opportunities where it would be easier for local businesses to influence faster and more effective outcomes.
Many members are persuaded that city devolution is highly relevant to tackling skills shortages. Industries like maritime and construction could be early beneficiaries. Working with colleges, universities and training providers in a regional labour market could be more productive if funding mechanisms including apprenticeship programmes could be influenced by the local business community.
In transport the delivery of the Clyde Metro could arguably have made much quicker progress - it is now eight years since its first proposal - if it had not had to go through a national strategic prioritisation process and if the region had an improved capacity to design and finance the Metro.
The development pace for Glasgow’s three university-led industry innovation districts would almost certainly have been quicker with more funds in regional hands.
That is not to say that national oversight is not important. Industry strategy is best designed nationally but agreement can be reached with national agencies like Scottish Enterprise or Innovate UK on what the greatest strengths are that individual city regions can contribute to each sector.
How will our major cities compete for private investment and talent if no agreement is reached between the Scottish and UK Governments on how far city-region empowerment should progress in Scotland?
The good news is that First Minister John Swinney committed last November to enabling legislation that would formalize the Glasgow City Region structures to make it easier to raise finances for projects like the Clyde Metro. That is a helpful step forward. So too is the SNP manifesto commitment for an Urban Development Company for Glasgow. That should add development capacity to help tackle commercial gap funding challenges such as those currently faced by Glasgow City Centre.
There is, however, an urgent need for the two governments to agree on how additional powers and resources are devolved to city regions. In the absence of that agreement the previous Conservative government often chose to side-step Holyrood. It would be so much better if there was agreement as to how, for example, industry research money, defence investment and welfare-related skills interventions will reach Glasgow City Region from the UK Government. And how skills, transport and industry support funding might be increasingly devolved from Holyrood. In the absence of an agreement, the Glasgow business community will support the Glasgow City Region make its own separate cases wherever opportunities arise. And if English cities become ever more powerful, the Glasgow case will be ever more pressing.
This article was first published in the Herald on 29 July 2026.
