Could a Mayor for Cumbria be a good thing for business?

However, no matter how engaged - or not - one may be with the process, the fact remains that on April 1 next year Cumbria will cease to be a county made up of six district, city and borough councils and split into two new unitary authorities, replacing Cumbria County Council.

In the south and east, Westmorland and Furness Council will cover what was Barrow, South Lakeland and Eden, while in the north and west Cumberland Council will take in Copeland, Allerdale and Carlisle.

From that point on the two councils will provide services as single entities, with the ambition of simplifying access to services and having a consistent approach to everything from highways to planning.

The merging of services will also include their economic development departments - a keystone for local businesses.

Suzanne Caldwell, managing director of Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, says it is understandable if the process is not the first thing on business owners’ minds right now.

"The businesses are really busy and they've got so much on their plate, it's not the most immediate issue,” she says.

However, those who do have it on their radar share some common concerns.

"What businesses are really concerned about is that their priorities as a business in their area of the county might get lost," she says.

"So in Eden they're concerned that Barrow have got some really big, dominant businesses and that their interests as a business will be subsumed.

“You go to Barrow and they’re worried they are going to be overtaken by farmers and hoteliers.

“I think the positive there is that actually everybody's got very similar concerns, and everybody wants to make sure that their area isn't going to lose out.”

She says as long as all those involved truly collaborate and work together the outcome could be good for business.

In particular, there could be a real advantage in combining the economic development teams of the various authorities.

"If you can bring the resources of those economic development teams into one bigger, really strong team you can do so much more,” she says.

"There's the opportunity to take advantage of the economies of scale.”

Local authority reorganisation also raises the question of whether a mayor could be elected to represent the whole of Cumbria, similar to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham or Ben Houchen in the Tees Valley.

A mayoral combined authority can seek devolved powers and funding from central Government to take more direct control of certain aspects of running their region, such as transport or housing.

Suzanne says the model could be a good thing for Cumbria.

“Not only do they get significant funding but, really importantly, they get genuine control over things that you do not have control of up here in the county.”

Colin Tomlinson, managing director of H&H Land and Estates - which has offices across the county - says the move to having two unitaries should make things simpler for the business.

The company often has to deal with local authorities in relation to planning issues, such as consulting on change of use conditions with customers.

“When you speak to a different authority you get a different interpretation each

time,” he says.

“If it brings that all together and it’s more uniform it makes life a lot simpler. If there's one thing that we can aim at and get the right answers, I think it will make life a lot easier for us advising clients.”

Lee Grears, who is founder of the Responsive group of mechanical testing and training companies in Lillyhall and also chair of Britain’s Energy Coast Business Cluster, hopes reorganisation will remove some complexity for businesses in Cumbria.

He also thinks having a unitary mayor could provide a valuable “single voice” to lobby Westminster on Cumbria’s behalf.

“Who is that single voice for Cumbria?” he says.

“Who goes and walks the corridors of Whitehall and says Cumbria is the place to invest? We don’t have an Andy Burnham or a Ben Houchen and you see how much airtime they get.

“That’s something that has been missing for Cumbria for a very, very long time.”

Councillor Jonathan Brook, who has been named as the leader of the new Westmorland and Furness Council, says it is important to be clear that the process of reorganising the local councils is completely separate to the potential for an elected mayor.

"There is no plan to move to a mayor for Cumbria," he says.

"There are aspirations among some politicians within Cumbria that that is the outcome but it is by no means something that is even particularly on our agenda at this moment in time.

"Both councils are focused on the job at hand, which is to hopefully be able to have a seamless transition on April 1. That's a huge task in itself but it's entirely separate from this question of devolution.”

He says while the new authority will continue to engage with local business groups and build on the work already done by economic development teams within the existing organisations the exact structure of how that will be delivered is still being worked out.

However, the policies and approaches of the existing councils will be “harmonised” within the new authority - a process which could take three or four years.

He says he “waits to be convinced” that a unitary mayor for Cumbria is the best thing for the region, especially as a long and difficult process is now underway to separate it into two distinct areas.

"The suggestion that we stitch the whole thing back together and insert an additional layer with a new mayor for Cumbria doesn't, on the face of it, seem to make a great deal of sense,” he says.

However, he is enthusiastic about looking at different models for how a devo deal could work. For example, with Lancaster City Council and the communities around Morecambe Bay being treated as a single functioning economic area, as has been outlined in the vision for the Bay unitary authority which was rejected by the Government.

"I think there's a lot to explore and certainly we're keen to engage in any discussions, but very much our focus is on the primary task of delivering what we've just been asked by Government to do,” he says.