Marvin Rees: Bristol needs a ‘City Office’

Marvin Rees, one of two candidates vying to be selected by Labour to run for mayor, introduces his proposal for a new “City Office” for local governance.

Bristol is a great but unequal city that punches below its weight. That’s not necessarily been down to an inability to generate ideas and initiatives.

We have had great success in particular areas but what we have lacked is an ability to focus and co-ordinate our resources on the issues that cut across the city.

This is a major reason why we have the persistence of a powerful economy sitting cheek by jowl with 22 per cent of our children living in poverty, an ongoing housing crisis and children in Clifton 17 times more likely to attend university than those in Knowle West.

The City Office would be a real city team made up of representatives from every major sector in the city, including politics, health, local government, business, unions, education, criminal justice, and the community, voluntary and faith sectors.

The City Office would not be a virtual group meeting for two hours every other month. We will ask each organisation to second members of its staff to work in the office for up to three days a week to pursue its objectives from a position of city rather than merely organisational leadership.

Critically, they will have to think more intentionally about how they and their organisation contribute to and benefit from delivering the overarching shared city priorities.

Transport, housing and sustainable economic development are issues of critical importance that require cross-border working. We need to urgently build relationships of trust with our neighbours in South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and BANES.

My hope is that by inviting our neighbours to share in setting the direction for Bristol, we will build trust while ensuring our plans for Bristol will truly benefit the whole West of England.

I intend to use the office to improve links with Bristol’s MPs and representatives in the House of Lords by giving them a place. This will ensure that Bristol’s needs inform what they say and do at national level and ensure that we are fully aware of the policies being developed at Westminster and the potential implications for Bristol.

Bristol will need to be able to make its case to central government on the impact of austerity. We will be in a stronger position to do this if the arguments we make have been developed and supported by the whole city and have the support of our national representatives rather than just Bristol City Council.

We will need to be united to ensure that our institutions across local government, health, the police and business get the policies and financial settlements they need from central government.

The policy of having a mayor was never just about taking a new political position and imposing it on top of Bristol City Council. It was a policy that offered much more profound change than that. It is time to seize that change.