British Charter Cities

The development aid budget is redirected, through a managed transition that begins in the first months in office, to founding productive cities overseas on long leases under British administration. Each city is agreed by treaty with a willing host on a lease of around a century, under which the host keeps sovereignty and delegates defined powers over planning, taxation, courts, policing and public services. A tiered offer allows partners that do not want full governance to take a lighter form of partnership. Each city brings common law, sound administration and infrastructure together in one place, and hosts receive lease income and a share of success that grows over time. Residence in a city creates no British nationality and no right to settle in the United Kingdom. A British Charter Cities Fund invests mainly through equity and loans, so that Britain recovers value, and the programme is built as a portfolio of a founding city with two or three in preparation. A reserve for humanitarian relief remains outside it.