Business leaders in Scotland’s two biggest cities have called on the Prime Minister to hand Glasgow and Edinburgh the kind of devolved powers already enjoyed by city regions in England, warning that the current arrangements are costing the country billions. The Glasgow and Edinburgh chambers of commerce made the appeal to Andy Burnham, urging that stronger local powers sit alongside, rather than replace, the Scottish Government’s own plans.
At the centre of their case is a striking figure. Analysis cited by the chambers estimates that the Glasgow City Region alone loses around 7 billion pounds in economic output every year, equivalent to roughly 19 million pounds a day, or about 3,700 pounds for every resident. That gap, they argue, reflects not a lack of ambition but a funding system that leaves Scottish cities at a disadvantage.
“This is not a failure of ambition or of delivery,” said Stuart Patrick of the Glasgow chamber, pointing instead to fragmented funding arrangements that comparable English regions are able to avoid. The message is that Glasgow and Edinburgh have the plans and the capacity to grow faster, but lack the certainty and flexibility that devolution has given their counterparts south of the border.
The chambers set out three specific requests. They want direct engagement between the UK Government, the Scottish Government and the city regions on funding and devolution; access to the funding mechanisms available to English combined authorities, starting with the Local Innovation Partnership Fund; and meetings at Number 10 to discuss what a settlement might look like.
The comparison with England is central to the argument. English city regions have gained widening control over funding and decision-making in recent years, while Glasgow and Edinburgh, the chambers say, face growing gaps in both. They note that Glasgow already manages a 2 billion pound growth portfolio, evidence, in their view, that the cities can be trusted with greater responsibility.
The stakes are considerable. Together, the Glasgow and Edinburgh regions generate around 100 billion pounds in economic output and are home to some 3.5 million people. Unlocking faster growth in these areas, the chambers argue, would benefit not only the cities themselves but the wider Scottish and UK economies.
Whether the appeal gains traction will depend on a complex negotiation involving both the UK and Scottish governments, and questions of devolution in Scotland are rarely straightforward. But the intervention puts a clear number on what the chambers believe is being lost, and adds business voices to a debate about how power and funding should be shared between national governments and the cities that drive much of the country’s growth.
