Bristol Mayor Marvin Rees is calling on the business community to support him as he sets out the case for increased powers and investment for the city.
Mayor Rees, pictured, joined the leaders and mayors of the UK’s most powerful cities this week in calling on the government to loosen the Treasury purse strings and devolve more spending from Westminster. 
Current local government spending limits meant Bristol, despite its resilient economy and fast-growing sectors, was failing to meet its potential, Mayor Rees said. This situation was likely to get worse post-Brexit, he said.
He was in Westminster earlier this week to launch a green paper Invest Reform Trust with leaders of the other major UK cities.
The report – produced by Core Cities UK, the representative voice of the UK’s 10 biggest cities outside London – calls on the government to rebalance the UK and adopt a local focus to policy to ensure a stronger and fairer Britain.
Speaking last Saturday at a rally and march he called to protest against the government’s austerity measures, Mayor Rees said he wanted all sections of the city to take up the call for more investment, including the business community.
Without more investment, Bristol would not be able to continue to compete on the international stage in its key sectors, he said. Budgets for education, infrastructure, transport and skills – all essential for business to thrive – were being pared, he said.
He was joined at the rally by Bristol lawyer and businesswoman Marti Burgess, who said lack of investment in the city was a threat to its economy and called on business leaders to back the mayor in his plea to the government for more money from Westminster.
Mayor Rees said: “Bristol is consistently rated as one of the best places to live and visit in the UK. With its wealth of culture, together with its attractiveness, friendliness and accessibility, it has a visitor economy in excess of £1.3bn that supports both leisure and business tourism.
“However, we have faced significantly reduced government funding, while the cost of providing vital services to more people has risen substantially. This is a huge challenge and at the same time, we’re determined to deliver on our priorities and make Bristol a more equal city where no-one is left behind and where there is less of a need to rely on the council doing everything it once did.
“The green paper we have launched highlights how, by building a better Bristol through greater investment and the ability to make more decisions locally, we, along with the other core cities, can help deliver for the nation.
“So far, ministers have not involved us in plans for the economy after Brexit – so I, with the other core city leaders, am taking the opportunity to start that discussion, and we are reminding ministers we want to be part of an inclusive conversation.”
He said Bristol and the other core cities wanted a new settlement under which power passed from central government to local communities, allowing them to take back control of service provision and help rebalance the economy by supporting economic growth.
He added that international evidence showed that cities that had the most control over taxes raised in their area tended to be the most productive, but the UK was significantly out of step with international competitors in the power given to cities are the UK was still one of the most highly centralised countries in the world.
Core Cities UK’s green paper also proposes that cities play a bigger role in boosting the UK’s international trading links, given the importance of city-to-city relationships in boosting trade and investment.
It calls for a new partnership with the Department for International Trade to develop an Urban Trade programme across the UK’s cities and more of a role for cities in trade missions.
