Bath can take advantage of the promise by Chancellor George Osborne to devolve more powers from London to regional cities – but only by working closer with other West of England authorities.
The view has come from regional business leaders who fear that unless the four West councils collaborate better the region will be miss out on gaining more autonomy – and the funding that would go with it. 
The West’s long-standing difficulties in working together have been put in sharp relief by the political focus on the so-called Northern Powerhouse – the region stretching from Manchester across the Pennines to Leeds – where local authorities have been more enthusiastic about burying their differences.
Mr Osborne also said in a speech in Manchester yesterday that powers would only be decentralised to cities which had elected mayors.
Bristol, which has an elected mayor, has pushed hard for more powers over recent years by collaborating in strategic areas such as transport and housing.
But the three other local authorities – Bath and North East Somerset (B&NES), South Gloucestershire and North Somerset – do not appear to have matched its enthusiasm for collaboration. However, B&NES looks set to have a ballot on a directly-elected mayor.
One senior business figure said Mr Osborne’s latest comments – which included a promise to publish a Cities Devolution Bill – showed the need to collaborate.
He said: “We don’t want to be the last ship in the harbour. The authorities have failed to work together on many areas, despite the best efforts of some people.
“Manchester has shown us what can be achieved through collaboration and they are reaping the rewards.”
However, the West of England Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) stressed the positives. Chair Colin Skellett said: “We welcome the Government’s commitment to provide greater devolution from London to the regions.
“The West of England LEP region, under the combined leadership of our four unitary authorities, university and business community, has already shown how it can make tough decisions and deliver major economic and infrastructure projects, including our £300m MetroBus and MetroWest schemes, and £213m worth of key projects through the Local Growth Deal agreed with government, which will boost economic growth and create jobs in the area.”
He said the authorities were working collaboratively to use the £1bn funding from the LEP’s City Deal to drive much-needed infrastructure projects in the five Enterprise Areas, including Bath’s Western Riverside, along with Bristol’s Temple Quarter Enterprise Zone.
“We are encouraged that the Government is continuing in its commitment to have more decision-making made in the regions,” he said.
