The soft power advantage of mayors

One of the clearest benefits of mayoral leadership comes in driving investment. The mayor of Tees Valley, Ben Houchen, has made it his mission to negotiate directly with companies thinking about investing or moving to Tees Valley. In recent years this has seen major results, with FDI investment doubling from almost £5 billion to almost £10 billion between 2016-19.

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Give back control: Realising the potential of England's mayors

The Government should unleash a wave of devolution to mayors to level up growth and boost their electoral prospects