It’s probably fair to say few things which touch the everyday lives of Halton residents fly under the radar as much as its membership of the Liverpool City Region.

But on May 2, borough residents will go to the polls to help choose its new leader. Halton is one of six member councils of the Liverpool City Region (LCR), along with Liverpool, St Helens, Wirral, Knowsley and Sefton. As a combined authority, its leader has broad powers over many issues which impact residents' day-to-day lives, from major infrastructure projects to aspects of transport, housing, training and business investment.

The World spoke to Liverpool University's professor of politics Stuart Wilks-Heeg about the LCR and what it means for Halton.

(Q): What does Halton get out of being part of the Liverpool City Region?

The Liverpool City Region was established as part of a long-running agenda of governments devolving power from Westminster to local areas in England. That project began first in the big conurbations in the north, like Greater Manchester and Merseyside.

Halton had the choice to either join the Liverpool City Region or not join any of the new combined authorities with their metro mayors. Halton had already been working closely with the Merseyside boroughs for some time, because of its strategic importance as a gateway to the Liverpool City Region.

The combined authorities have additional resources and powers that are used to improve transport, develop the local economy, provide training for local people and so on. Halton and its residents gain from all of those things from being part of the LCR. If Halton had decided to stay outside of the LCR, it would not have access to any of these programmes and its residents and its businesses would miss out as a result.

(Q):  Why is there occasional pushback against it from voters in some areas?

Any changes to political geography tend to produce pushback, whether it’s revisions to the boundaries of parliamentary constituencies, the merger of local councils or the addition of a district to a city-region.

Halton has historically been part of Cheshire and, although it separated from Cheshire County Council over 25 years ago, many residents will feel more of an affinity to Cheshire than to Merseyside. The same tendency is found in Southport, where there are still campaigns for the town to rejoin Lancashire, even though it joined Merseyside in 1974. It’s unlikely that the Liverpool City Region will be able to shift such loyalties, whatever it does.

Being part of the LCR will result in stronger economic connections between Halton to Liverpool, but it won’t make much difference to local identities in Halton. Some residents of Halton will also resent paying a supplement to their Council Tax to be part of the LCR, although this precept, as it is called, amounts to less than £20 per annum for virtually every Halton household.

(Q):  What has devolution in general done for areas like Halton?

Devolution is a long-term agenda and the role of the LCR is to improve transport, housing, the local economy and people’s skills over the long-run. Many of the benefits won’t be evident yet but, over time, there should be tangible improvements, as Halton becomes better connected to the LCR. However, there are already some benefits that can be pointed to.

Firms in Halton have been able to create additional jobs as a result of grants from the LCR. New cycle infrastructure is being developed as part of the LCR’s plans for active travel. Residents of Halton have benefited from energy efficiency schemes to reduce the costs of gas and electricity.

For instance, 91 Halton households took part in the LCR’s recent Solar Together scheme, which resulted in solar panels being fitted to over 1,000 homes in the LCR.

(Q): How do you feel about regional devolution, the LCR and its potential for areas like Halton?

The intentions behind devolution are absolutely right. The UK economy is very imbalanced, with wealth and growth concentrated in London and the South East. Changing this will require new institutions and will need to see far more key decisions about planning, transport and economic development being made locally.

British cities outside London have much poorer transport infrastructure than their counterparts in Northern Europe and this impacts on people’s everyday lives and on economic potential. Since the mid-1990s, the revival of Liverpool has been evident and this has brought some clear benefits to neighbouring boroughs, for instance via tourism and large cultural events.

The point of devolution is to continue and accelerate that trajectory and to spread the benefits out more widely from the core cities involved. Residents of Halton may feel relatively untouched by any of this so far, unless they work in Liverpool or visit the city often. But being part of the LCR should only bring benefits to Halton. There isn’t really a downside to being better connected to a vibrant city-region.

(Q): Why should people in Halton take an interest in who’s their next metro mayor?

Elections for metro mayors haven’t really generated great excitement and turnout in these elections has tended to be low. But, as well as leading on a range of practical efforts to develop the city-region, the metro mayor is a figurehead for it.

The Covid crisis showed how metro mayors can stand up for the people and places they represent and gain the ear of national government, including the Prime Minister, directly. Some Halton residents resented being included in the LCR Tier 3 Covid regulations during Covid, but it wasn’t long before the rest of England had joined the LCR in another lockdown.

Meanwhile, the metro mayor was able to engage directly with government about the situation in the city-region. Hopefully, we won’t ever have another pandemic any time soon, but the same principle applies to all sorts of areas of government.

Residents of the LCR get to elect someone who will be able to engage with national government directly and who can be held to account for what they promise for the city region. That’s probably worth the cost of £15-20 per annum per household and it’s certainly worth heading to the polling station to cast a vote for one of the candidates.

Candidate list:

A list of candidates and their parties for the upcoming mayor elections can be found here.

Voters must take photo ID to their polling station on the day. A list of acceptable ID can be found here.