Gordon, Alan, take your pick

Now that the drafting of the Labour party manifesto has degenerated from a Big Conversation into an unseemly row, it might be an idea to turn the focus back on policy. Even if neither faction can agree on ideology, there might still be space for some common sense proposals. So, in bipartisan spirit, these hotchpotch policy suggestions are offered up for in either Chancellor Brown's or Chancellor Milburn's manifesto.

The decisive no vote from the north-east in the November referendum signaled the end of John Prescott's regional agenda. It's now time to junk the plan for assemblies and revive Labour's first-term ambition of elected city mayors. Not only is this approach far more in grain with Britain's parish-council history, but it also makes good public policy. Mid-term analysis by the New Local Government Network of the first 12 mayors - among them Ken Livingstone, Ray Mallon, even Hartlepool's monkey mascot - showed a remarkably positive outcome. Mayors were regarded as less partisan, more representative of their communities, more prominent in local leadership and likely to win re-election. Meanwhile, a report on urban prosperity from Prescott's own department has confirmed the economic sense behind autonomous city government.

To return power to the municipalities, the lumbering Regional Development Agencies require equally urgent reform. Since their inception, these bodies have been unaccountable for their extensive planning and spending powers. Their powers would be far better exercised at local and civic level. As would control of business revenues.

It is now 15 years since John Major nationalised business property rates by handing them over to the Treasury. This centralist smash and grab deprived local government of a source of locally determined revenue that responded to economic growth. It hugely weakened the fiscal independence of councils, while severing their relationship with the business community. The government is dispersing tens of thousands of civil servants to the provinces; it would be far simpler just to give them their money back.

None the less, the slow return of residents, business and culture to Britain's cities is one of the success stories of the past 10 years. And it's all happened despite massive fiscal disincentives. To convert an abandoned brownfield site or historic building into domestic use will incur VAT charges on the development. But for Barrett or Wimpey to throw up some low-density sprawl on greenfield sites will incur no such cost. This is one of the craziest European Commission directives, and one that actively militates against intelligent land use.

But while more public money might be heading into urban areas, there still exists precious little culture of civic philanthropy. The newly wealthy of Blair's Britain, with fortunes on the back of the property, internet and leisure industries, appear wholly uninterested in channeling their riches into the civic fabric. So, despite extensive lottery funds, there is a looming crisis in our regional museums. What about annual urban lotteries with the money specifically designated for local cultural institutes? This could provide a welcome stream of extra revenue as well as kick-starting some local philanthropy.

The running battle over the creation of a national park in the South Downs shows the growing impossibility of carving out new areas of wilderness in the highly populated British Isles. Yet, as an island race, we remain curiously backward in our conservancy of the sea. There is currently only one statutory marine nature reserve, around Lundy island off the north Devon coast. As our seas turn into ecological deserts, ministers need to face down the fisheries lobby and start turning the British coast into a world leader in ocean conservation.

Finally, two quick costless policies that would go a long way to setting out a new direction for the government and nation. After the Hutton and Budd inquiries, public confidence in the neutrality of the civil service needs restoring. The swift implementation of a Civil Service Act would deliver a clear signal about protecting the valuable autonomy of British bureaucracy as well as prevent the trend towards politicisation that is inevit able in any party that is used to power.

Secondly, following the understandable outrage of poet Benjamin Zephaniah at being offered an Order of the British Empire, and two separate inquiries into the honours system, Labour should follow the advice of the historian David Cannadine and exchange "Excellence" for "Empire". Gordon Brown has made a series of important speeches on the changing nature of Britishness; here is a concrete step to separate our modern national identity from colonialism.

But if Alan Milburn wants the idea for his manifesto, that's also fine by me.

· Tristram Hunt is the author of Building Jerusalem: the Rise and Fall of the Victorian City