Marvin Rees is urging the two contenders vying to be the next Prime Minister to “refresh” the Government’s relationship with councils and forge a national plan for UK cities. Bristol’s Labour mayor is joining the leaders of 10 other major cities in writing to Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss, imploring them to better understand the critical role local authorities play in “keeping this country stitched together”.
Mr Rees told a city council cabinet meeting on Tuesday, August 2, that whoever won the Conservative Party leadership contest needed to grasp the unique challenges facing cities and the opportunities they present in leading the fight against climate change. The mayor said: “We are going to write a letter to both the Prime Ministerial candidates through the Core Cities making a number of points to them.
“One of them is ‘this is your opportunity to refresh your relationship with local government’, and part of that refresh includes really understanding the role of local government and how important we are to delivery in keeping this country stitched together, particularly with the cost-of-living crisis which is a another demand on our need to support children and adults in this crisis period. The second point we are going to make is that we want Government to have a particular understanding of cities.
