It wasn’t a revolution in devolution, nor a fully fledged metro-mayor model, but the 27th State of the City Economy Conference offered Glasgow and its surrounding councils a glimpse of new possibilities. With enabling legislation and powers over planning, economic development, and skills on the table, Scotland’s largest city region may be poised to steer more of its own economic future.
Scratching beneath the surface of ongoing debates about the day-to-day running of the city, devolution has become one of the central political conversations among commentators and politicians in recent years. That was clear on Friday: when the audience was asked to suggest discussion topics, the resulting word cloud showed devolution front and centre.
And – as if on cue – in his keynote speech, John Swinney announced that his government will introduce enabling legislation in the next Parliament to allow regional partnerships like the Glasgow City Region to secure formal legal status and assume new responsibilities currently held by national agencies. Planning, economic development, skills – the kinds of levers that shape long-term prosperity by enabling infrastructure investment – would all be in scope.
This matters not just for Glasgow itself, but for the seven surrounding council areas that together form Scotland’s largest and most economically significant city region. With a population approaching 1.2 million and accounting for a substantial share of Scotland’s jobs, output, and innovation, the Region, Aitken claims, is waiting for the ‘brakes to be released’.
On paper, the enabling legislation is the start of a serious conversation about devolving powers to Scotland’s largest city. In practice, it marks a departure from a governing style long centred on the centralisation of power in Edinburgh. For over a decade, the Scottish Government has followed a pattern of consolidation: police and fire services merged into national bodies; enterprise and skills functions absorbed into central structures; and local government budgets increasingly directed by ring-fenced national priorities. Scotland’s political culture has been shaped by the belief that national coordination is more efficient than local autonomy.
So, the fact that Swinney chose this conference – and this moment – to promise reform is not insignificant. And neither was his presence.
For several years, frustrations have been voiced that Glasgow is not living up to its potential due to a lack of focus from national government, reinforced by the recent absence of a Cabinet-level Glasgow representative, apart from Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf while serving as First Ministers. Given the Glasgow’s role as Scotland’s economic engine, that absence has been politically conspicuous.
With a Holyrood election fast approaching, and Glasgow’s historically symbolic and supportive electoral base on the line, the SNP’s turn towards regional empowerment is also a clear signal to voters – and an attempt to address concerns about its stewardship of the city over recent years. Talking up Glasgow’s economic centrality, promising powers previously resisted, and praising the Muscatelli report commissioned by Anas Sarwar all form part of that recalibration.
Friday’s announcement wasn’t just policy. It was politics aimed squarely at Glasgow.
But this is not the metro mayor model.
Despite calls from the Centre for Cities and others, Swinney was clear that powers will be devolved through the existing city-region cabinet model, which he praised as collaborative, mature, and consistent with Scottish local governance traditions. Devolution, yes – but strictly on the Scottish Government’s terms.
So what does all this mean?
The enabling legislation promised after May’s election won’t deliver a metro mayor. Instead, it will provide greater autonomy for the Glasgow City Region, giving it the legal framework to unlock powers over planning, economic development, and skills, and to develop regional delivery models tailored to local priorities.
But this is only half the story. Devolving powers without the accompanying funding would have limited impact. A Greater Manchester-style settlement – where an integrated funding package gives the region flexibility to invest strategically across councils and sectors, as the five Labour and three SNP leaders within the City Region Cabinet are calling for – remains contingent on funding from the UK Government, since Barnett consequentials have not historically flowed to support such arrangements in Scotland.
As she has been keen to emphasise throughout discussions on devolution, Cllr Aitken stressed that powers alone cannot realise the region’s full economic potential. She called on the UK Government to provide support, noting that both the City Region and the Core Cities Group are collectively lobbying Westminster for parity with English city regions.
The announcement marks a shift – cautious, perhaps, but real. It signals a government that appears to recognise that national economic ambitions cannot be delivered from Edinburgh alone. It acknowledges the strength and maturity of the Glasgow City Region model, and it reframes the city and its surrounding councils as a strategic partner in Scotland’s economic future.
John Swinney’s commitments at the 27th State of the City Economy Conference suggest that Glasgow is finally being taken more seriously and, in an election year, is a message he will be hoping the city’s voters consider impossible to ignore.
