A Tory mayor has discovered the solution to local government funding: give mayors money so they can decide what to do with the money they were already supposed to decide what to do with. Lord Houchen wants income tax rebates. The Prime Minister wants the same money reinvested in communities. Both are correct. Both are also describing the exact same pile of cash.
The rebate proposal hinges on a concept so elegant in its circularity that it deserves its own municipal building. Mayors would receive a cut of income tax revenue, then—and here is where it gets interesting—they would presumably use that money to improve their communities, which is what local government funding is theoretically for already. The distinction between “rebate” and “reinvestment” exists only in the minds of people who have been in budget meetings so long they have forgotten what money actually is.
What nobody is discussing: whether any of this money will reach anyone who needs it, or whether we are simply watching two tiers of government argue over which one gets to announce the same spending three times and claim credit for it. The mayors want autonomy. The Prime Minister wants accountability. Both want the press release.
The real absurdity is not the disagreement. It is that this entire debate assumes the money exists in the first place.