The White Paper makes it clear that the Government’s ambition is to have mayors leading strategic authorities in every area of England.  They will be, “front and centre”, of the new devolution model. 

 

Given mayors are the Government’s strong preference, the deepest powers will only be available at the mayoral level and higher.  This is what is known as, “the devolution offer”.

 

To provide consistency across the country, the Government will remove the ability of Strategic Authorities to call mayors by another name, via new legislation.

 

Mayors will be tasked with focusing fully on their devolved responsibilities.  Leading their place and delivering vital services will be the responsibility of council leaders.  The White Paper has separated out these responsibilities, stating that the conflation of them into one individual, as is the case if the local authority had a mayoral model of devolution, would risk optimal outcomes for both.  They are therefore discontinuing the individual local authority devolution model in its current mayoral form and replacing it with strategic authority devolution instead.