The Treasury has published an important "sub-national review" looking at the future of regionalism and local government in England (outside of London). Especially when taken together with the Planning White Paper (which will become the Planning Reform Bill) and plans to speed up the rate of house building in southern England (which will be in a Housing and Regeneration Bill), Brown is setting out a very systematic strategy to give greater priority to economic growth.
Yes, economic growth, in the old-fashioned GDP, GNP, or GVA sense. Not adjusted to take account of environmental damage or resource depletion or social costs. Not of a sort which will be decoupled from its usual environmental impacts. Not necessarily sustainable or equitable or useful. Just simply growth. The entire debate about green economics appears to have made no impact on him whatsoever, even despite the Treasury's commissioning of the influential Stern Report on climate change.
Regional assemblies are to be abolished - mainly because some of them stood in the way of growth. Regional spatial strategies are to be abolished - mainly because they sometimes got in the way of the regional economic strategies. In future, the regional economic strategies, drawn up by the regional development agencies (RDAs), will reign supreme. The RDAs (required by law to have a majority of businesspeople on their boards) are to take control at the regional level, but to make things absolutely clear, they will have a "growth-focused framework defined by a single over-arching growth objective" (page 9) and be answerable to the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. "The Government is also considering how to improve the allocation of funding for transport so that it is better targeted at tackling constraints to economic growth." (page 83)
OTHER PARTS OF THE GOVERNMENT'S AGENDA
Discussions are taking place across Whitehall and amongst ministers to decide the Government's key objectives for the next three years, as part of the Comprehensive Spending Review. The process, which is being led by the Treasury, centres on determining a set of Public Service Agreements (PSAs), each of which will be shared by a number of departments. Each PSA will have indicators to measure its achievement (or not), and a Delivery Agreement setting out what each department and other public body will contribute to the PSA's implementation. The new set of PSAs is expected to be announced on October 17th. Key point to watch: is there a credible delivery agreement on climate change? Will the Treasury sign up to using its tax powers? Will the Departments of Health and Education agree to try curbing carbon emissions from their current massive building programmes?
The Draft Climate Change Bill was published by the Government in March. If it becomes law, it will set a target for carbon emissions "at least 60% lower than the 1990 baseline" for 2050; and give the Government power to set targets ("carbon budgets") for each 5-year period leading up to 2050, starting from 2008-12. The Draft Bill provides for a series of reporting mechanisms, various get-out provisions in case things get difficult, and a new Committee on Climate Change to give advice to the Government about how to reach its targets. The draft does not deal with specific measures to combat climate change, apart from giving the Government a general power to set up emissions trading schemes, nor does it amend the responsibilities of public bodies to move climate change up their agendas. But why shouldn't the Highways Agency, for example, get a statutory duty for bringing down emissions from road transport?
Official figures for UK carbon dioxide emissions show that emissions in 2006 were 1% more than in 2005, and nearly 3% above what they were the year Labour took office, 1997. The official figures exclude aviation, where emissions are rising faster than in the economy as a whole.
Royal Commissions used to be prestigious and influential bodies, slow-moving and establishment-oriented, but nevertheless taken very seriously by governments. Thatcher didn't like them because they were consensus-building organisations which could stand in the way of her own very clear ideas. Only one Royal Commission has survived into the present day - the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, which has just brought out a report on the urban environment. It has spent - as is the traditional style of Royal Commissions - years researching into its topic. It has engaged consultants and professors, consulted experts and politicians, and even (in a rather modern departure from tradition) identified its "wicked issues". It has come up with a long list of sensible recommendations, including measures to reduce urban road traffic and carbon emissions. The problem, however, is that it appears to have made very little impact, either on public debate or on the Government. The Commission's thinking is potentially a very useful counterweight to the Government's ideas on planning issues - which is perhaps why they were so keen to minimise the impact of this report. www.recep.org.uk
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES
WWF have published a very interesting short report, "One Planet Business", which sets out some of the basic facts about sustainability and the reduction of ecological footprints. It is a key document in WWF's shift of focus towards putting increasing emphasis on promoting positive solutions in the area of sustainable consumption and production. Although this is a creative and useful development, the other side of the coin is that it may allow international biodiversity issues, the traditional main concern of WWF, to shift even further down the UK political agenda. www.wwf.org./uk/oneplanetbusiness
The International Energy Agency - which is basically the energy policy wing of OECD, representing Western energy consuming countries, has warned in a new report that "oil looks extremely tight" in five years' time . Supply is falling faster than expected in the North Sea and off Mexico, various projects have become delayed, such as in the Russian Far East, and demand from countries such as China and India is growing fast. The clear implication: oil prices are going to be rising steadily for years to come.
The European Commission has issued a warning that available supplies of raw materials are running down. In a release issued on 5th June, the Commission expressed concern that the "unprecedented demand for minerals" in fast-growing economies such as China and India is placing increasing pressure on global supplies, bidding up prices as a result. The EU has a particular problem with metals, where the press release says "Europe's capacity to provide its own supply through domestic extraction is very limited."
The G8 summit in Germany (June 6th/7th/8th) revisited the question of aid for Africa. At the summit two years previously, held in Gleneagles, Scotland, it was agreed to double aid from G8 countries to Africa to reach 50 billion dollars by 2010, but in fact aid to Africa from the G8 has only risen slightly since then, making it highly unlikely that the promise is going to be kept in 2010. This year's summit failed to reaffirm the Gleneagles pledge to provide universal access to Aids treatment by 2010. The summit documents are available on the German Government website at: http://www.g-8.de/Webs/G8/EN/Homepage/home.html
On climate change, this year's G8 summit indicated a small move forward from the USA - leading to a commitment agreed by all eight leaders to "consider seriously" the aim of reducing carbon emissions by at least 50% by 2050. That's all - but that is further than they have ever agreed to go up to now.
