Devolution

The devolution of powers from Westminster to all local areas in England is the primary focus of the White Paper.

The current position is that currently only 61% of England is covered by a devolution deal. 90% of the North of England is covered by a devolution deal. Only 46% of the South of England has such a deal. The scale of change is therefore significant.

The restructuring of local authorities into unitary authorities looking after a population of 500,000+ is a key mechanism to improve performance and efficiency, which in turn, will aid effective devolution. However, the Government requires those unitary authorities to come together to form, “Strategic Authorities”, which will govern areas over a geography of 1.5million people (or more), ideally under an elected mayor.

Apart from those areas in the priority programme, agreement on unitisation and Secretary of State approval of them, are likely to happen before devolution proposals are put forward.

Return to Devolution and Local Gov Hub

Strategic authorities may be either

Combined Authorities (CAs): Combined Authorities or Mayoral Combined Authorities: formed of two or more local councils, either led by a directly elected Mayor (Mayoral Combined Authority) or without a Mayor (Combined Authority). They support councils to work together across a wider geographic area on issues such as transport and housing. Any “lower tier” authorities (districts or borough councils within a county council area) are included as members. CAs are established by Local, Economy and Construction Act 2009 (as amended by Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016).

Current CAs: Greater Manchester Combined Authority; Liverpool City Region Mayoral Combined Authority; Greater London Authority; North East Mayoral Combined Authority; South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority; Tees Valley Combined Authority; West Midlands Combined Authority; West Yorkshire Combined Authority; York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority.

Combined County Authorities (CCAs): Combined County Authorities or Mayoral Combined County Authorities: formed of two or more local councils, either led by a Mayor (Mayoral Combined County Authority) or without a Mayor (Combined County Authority). They support councils to work together across a wider geographic area on issues such as transport and housing. Any “lower tier” authorities (districts or borough councils within a county council area) are not included as members. CCAs were established by the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023.

Current CCAs: East Midlands Combined County Authority; Torbay and Devon Combined County Authority.

Combined County Authorities (CCAs) are designed for more rural areas, whereas the existing Combined Authorities (CA) typically cover cities.

Important notes re CA/CCAs and new devolution