A major package of devolution has been announced today – with six new areas confirmed to join the government’s Devolution Priority Programme.
Delivering on the government’s commitment to widen devolution, areas will be given sweeping new powers, putting them on the fast track to deliver growth, opportunities, transport and housing for local communities.
The programme – one of the largest ever single packages of mayoral devolution in England – will support the areas to move towards devolution at pace, becoming mayor-led strategic authorities by May next year if they proceed.
Today’s measures brings another 8.8m people under mayoral devolution – or another 15.38% of the population – bringing the total population who will see the benefit from devolution to over 44 million – close to 80% of the country.
Greater devolution is key to unlocking regional growth, delivering on the government’s Plan for Change and putting more money into working people’s pockets, while also empowering them to direct change in their communities.
For too long, political power has been hoarded in Whitehall. That’s why the government set out its proposals in the landmark English Devolution White Paper.
The following areas agreed to join the programme:
- Cumbria
- Cheshire & Warrington
- Norfolk & Suffolk
- Greater Essex
- Sussex & Brighton
- Hampshire & Solent
These six successful areas will now work to an ambitious devolution timetable, with full government backing, with consultations set to launch shortly.
In a further step forward for devolution being delivered at pace, today legislation comes into force to establish four new devolution institutions – as a result of devolution agreements confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister last year
This includes establishing two new mayoral authorities in Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire, and the formation of combined county authorities in Devon and Torbay, and Lancashire.
The government is also focused on fixing the foundations of local government, with simpler and more effective structures and a reduction in unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. Through a national programme of ambitious local government reform, the government will cut waste and improve accountability, ensuring taxpayers get value for money from their services. To achieve this, all councils in two-tier areas and small neighbouring unitary authorities are now being formally invited to develop unitary proposals – which will bring together lower and upper tier local government services in new unitary councils.
Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner said:
The truth is that for all the promises of levelling up, central government’s first instinct is all too often to hoard power and hold our economy back. Too many decisions affecting too many people are made by too few.
We promised to achieve a devolution revolution by overseeing the greatest transfer of power from Westminster in a generation, and today’s announcement will help raise living standards, improve public services and build the homes we so desperately need.
By taking a common-sense approach to reorganisation, boosted by our reforms to give mayors a suite of vital new powers, we will make sure areas can truly deliver on our Plan for Change.
Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, Jim McMahon OBE MP said:
In December, we asked areas to come forward to be part of our Devolution Priority Programme. The response was clear—this country is ready for change.
While devolution can be hard to understand sometimes, the aims of this programme are simple: it puts more money in people’s pockets, leads to quicker, better, cheaper transport, designed with local people in mind and puts politics back in the service of working people.
Today’s announcements come just weeks after plans were set out in the English Devolution White Paper to grant mayors control over key areas including strategic planning, housing, transport and skills.
This will equip these local leaders with the tools they need to deliver for their communities, putting England’s regions centre stage in the government’s Plan for Change missions to grow the economy, deliver 1.5 million homes, and boost opportunity across the country.
The English Devolution Bill – which is due to be brought forward later this year – will also hardwire proposed new mayoral powers into law.
In order to allow areas to deliver devolution to this ambitious timetable, the government has carefully considered requests from local councils to postpone a number of May 2025 local elections.
The bar to postpone elections has been extremely high, and the government has been clear that delays will only be agreed where there is strong justification set out by the local authority. The government has agreed to half of these requests, and will postpone elections due in May 2025 until May 2026 for nine local councils. These councils made the strongest possible case that this is strictly necessary to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe.
There is an established precedent, including in the cases of North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Somerset elections, and Buckinghamshire district councils elections, under the previous government when reorganisation happened there. The legislation to enable this will shortly be laid, subject to Parliamentary timetables.
In North Yorkshire, unitarisation enacted in 2023 has enabled the council to manage financial pressures though structural changes and service transformation, which is expected to achieve more than £40m in savings by March 2026.
Ministers will also continue to work with Lancashire, which is in a unique position as it is establishing a non-mayoral institution and is committed to reviewing its future devolution arrangements by the autumn, including steps to deepen devolution. This review will consider all options available for the area, including aligning with the Devolution Priority Programme when it concludes.
Also, given the urgency of creating sustainable unitary local government for Surrey, we will postpone the county election for that area from May 2025 to May 2026, helping to speed up reorganisation and deliver the local ambitions for devolution with the benefits it will bring.
