Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2016
The nature of city deals has changed over the period, both in Scotland, where we have one already and others are being discussed, and in England and Wales, where there has been a very large one recently in Cardiff. Some of those have involved asks for additional powers, as the member mentioned, and some councils have talked about additional powers, for example in relation to things such as employment services, which are currently provided by the Scottish Government.
There is an ask there, but it has not been detailed as yet. Most of the city deals that we have advanced along with the UK Government have been centred around infrastructure projects and some other innovations, which we will obviously talk about as soon as those city deals are completed.
We are willing to respond to requests from local government to talk about such additional powers, but they have to be made specific. The final judgment will concern whether the powers that are asked for would add to the value of the city deal under consideration if they were further devolved—and at this point in time we do not even have some of the powers that we have been asked for. We remain open-minded and we will take suggestions forward as and when a case is made to us.