Edinburgh council leader wants powers devolved from UK and Scottish Government to regions

He wants to see the Capital link up with neighbouring councils to take key decisions on issues such as housing, transport and economic growth.

And he is looking to Greater Manchester, with its Mayor Andy Burnham, as a model which Edinburgh and other parts of Scotland could follow.

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham | LDR

Councillor Day told the Evening News: “We have the new UK Government saying it’s going to bring in legislation to devolve more powers to regional authorities in England and Wales. I'm going to write to the First Minister to say, if the UK government is looking to do that south of the border, why aren’t we doing it in Scotland?”

And he said he hoped to meet Andy Burnham’s team within weeks to get a better idea of how things could work.

“We’ve had the success of things like the City Region Deal, which didn’t mean any more power, but it was an example of regional partnership that worked really well - getting a group of leaders together from an area that is all intertwined and getting them to deliver a £1.5 billion package.” He said both the Scottish and UK government emphasised the need to grow the economy. “That’s primarily done through the central belt and I would like to see there being a more joined up approach to that. That needs both the UK and Scottish Governments to get their heads together to look at how they could devolve powers either from the UK Government to councils in Scotland or from the UK to the Scottish Government to us.”

Cllr Day pointed to the number of people who travelled from places like East Lothian and Fife to work in Edinburgh and said it made sense for both housing and transport to be decided strategically over a larger area than currently.

But he said: “It's not about getting rid of councils or creating new councils. It's about creating what England has in place now - regional authorities that take on some of the big ticket issues and deliver them regionally while you still have councils doing frontline council services.”

In Greater Manchester, Mayor Andy Burnham leads the combined authority which brings together 10 existing councils and has responsibility for transport, skills, employment, planning and regeneration. The Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, which brought UK and Scottish government funding for a range of projects from housing to roads to technology, involved Edinburgh, East Lothian, Midlothian, West Lothian, Fife and Sottish Borders councils. But Cllr Day said the partnership that pursued the Forth Green Freeport involved Edinburgh, Fife and Falkirk.

“There’s a discussion to be had about how regional authorities could work and what the boundary would be. At the very least, Edinburgh and the Lothians should be in, then whether that includes the Borders, Falkirk or Fife is up for discussion.

“But when you have successful mayors like Andy Burnham, Tracy Brabin in West Yorkshire and Sadiq Khan in London, why wouldn't we at least look at that model in Scotland and have regional leaders - or regional champions you might call them - to champion housing, transport and economic growth, with powers and resources delegated from the UK and Scottish governments and the authorities?

“In the next few weeks I will be looking to meet with Andy Burnham’s team to look at how they delivered a regional Mayor and learn what worked and what didn’t so we could try to push that as something that might deliver on economic growth, housing and transport in Edinburgh and the wider region.”