Devolution must not treat London as the place that copes

Maybe it’s because I grew up in London, but devolution looks different when viewed through the eyes of the young people in the capital.

Devolution has the potential to transform skills systems across England. Giving regions greater control over skills, economic development and workforce planning should create more responsive local systems and bring decision-making closer to employers and communities.

But as powers, influence and resources move away from Whitehall and towards regions, there is a risk that London is viewed as a place that can cope without additional attention or investment. That assumption would be a mistake.

London’s FE colleges sit at the centre of one of the country’s most complex and economically significant skills ecosystems. They serve learners from every background, support employers across some of the UK’s most productive sectors and play a critical role in promoting social mobility.

Yet despite being one of the wealthiest cities in the world, London combines extraordinary wealth with deep pockets of poverty and inequality. Around 27 per cent of Londoners live in poverty, while child poverty remains particularly acute in boroughs such as Hackney, where I was born. In some communities, more than half of children are growing up in poverty.

That matters because devolution can create growing differences between regions in how support is delivered. As powers diverge, young people may increasingly encounter different skills entitlements, apprenticeship opportunities and support services depending on where they live.

Capital costs

For London colleges, there is another challenge: cost.

Colleges in the capital face operating pressures that are often more acute than elsewhere. They compete with higher-paying industries for specialist teaching staff. They operate within a labour market shaped by exceptionally high housing costs. Many work from ageing estates where maintenance, refurbishment and development costs are substantial.

Yet national funding rates do not always reflect these realities.

A London college principal recently told me that the challenges facing colleges are broadly the same wherever you go in the country. In some respects that is true. Every college is grappling with recruitment pressures, constrained budgets and rising expectations.

But the cost of delivery in London is different.

The government’s ambitions for construction, digital skills, green industries and economic growth depend on colleges being able to recruit and retain staff with industry experience. That challenge is particularly acute in London, where qualified professionals can often command significantly higher salaries outside education.

As devolution gathers pace, London colleges cannot simply absorb policy change. They must help shape it.

A stronger collective voice

London’s FE sector needs a stronger collective voice. Colleges should be positioning themselves as anchor institutions within London’s growth sectors and more central to workforce planning, economic development and community opportunity.

The capital needs a skills system that reflects the whole learner journey, from 16-19 education through to adult retraining. Bringing planning for both together would create a more coherent approach to workforce development and strengthen the link between education and employment.

The success of devolution will ultimately be judged by whether it creates a more coherent skills system, delivers the ambitions of Skills England and gives local areas a meaningful role in workforce planning.

The real danger is not devolution itself, but a fragmented skills system that weakens national coordination.

Devolution should be welcomed. But it must not be built on the assumption that all London communities are affluent or that the capital’s educational and social challenges have already been solved.

London is more than the City, Canary Wharf and Westminster. It is also Hackney, Newham, Southwark and countless other communities where colleges play a vital role in creating opportunity.

If power is being redistributed across England, we must ensure opportunity follows it.

The young people who need support most can be found in Hackney as well as Hull, Newham as well as Newcastle. A successful devolved skills system should expand opportunity everywhere, not simply move it from one place to another.