Introduction

Marvin Rees began to develop the idea of creating a Bristol City Office in the summer of 2015. At the time, he was competing to be selected as the Labour Party candidate to run for Mayor of Bristol in the May 2016 local election. In the simplest of terms, his City Office concept represents an attempt to unite public purpose in the city. It seeks to bind together all those who care about the city in a much more effective collaborative effort. The approach is strongly place-based, in the sense that it draws inspiration and enthusiasm from the positive feelings that people have about the place where they live.

In a headline on his campaign website in August 2015, Rees signalled the nature of the shift that he had in mind: ‘Bristol shouldn't be run from the council chamber’. This, in itself, was a radical statement for a politician seeking public office. In various speeches he explained that, while elected local government is enormously important in city governance, it is the way that public organizations work in creative collaboration with other interests in the city that holds out real promise for making social, economic and environmental progress.

In the autumn of 2015, shortly after he was selected as the Labour Party candidate for mayor, I had my first detailed conversation with Marvin about city governance. He had read my book on Leading the Inclusive City and we discussed ways of putting his City Office idea into effect. Marvin found the concept of realms of civic leadership to be particularly helpful – see Figure 4.2. He told me that he saw this figure as a ‘flower diagram’ and that the City Office should be located at the heart of this growing flower. In his mind, the City Office needed to draw insight and energy from all the five realms of place-based leadership shown in the diagram.

In the May 2016 mayoral election, Rees, and the Labour Party, won a resounding victory. Rees attracted the votes of 68,750 citizens, a figure that was over 29,000 more than the incumbent mayor, George Ferguson, an independent politician. The local election also saw the election of 37 Labour Party councillors, and this gave the Labour Party a majority of four on the 70-seat city council.