Mayors on the Devolution Express - by Angela Rayner

It does sound a bit like a modern reworking of “Murder on the Orient Express” - by Agatha Christie, doesn’t it? The Deputy PM and our brand new Secretary of State for the renamed Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government (DHCLG for short) wrote a fairly powerful letter to all council leaders last week where she announced, (and I quote) “The Minister for Local Government and my officials stand ready to meet to discuss proposals and to support you, so you are ready to board the train of devolution as we surge along this journey to give every community a voice in the future of Britain.”

I provide you with selected highlights from “Mayors on the devolution express”.

I am delighted to be writing to you with the weight of a new Labour government behind me, laser focused on pushing power out of Whitehall and lighting the touch paper of growth across our regions. In my first correspondence to you, I would like to invite you to partner with this government to deliver the most ambitious programme of devolution this country has ever seen. I know you agree that for too long, Westminster has hoarded power and held back towns, cities, and villages across the country from achieving their true potential.

This government has been elected on a manifesto to widen and deepen devolution across the country. I have seen first-hand the benefits of devolution, from better integrated transport and publicly controlled buses to new skills programmes and good, affordable housing projects. But our ambitions go further. We will devolve new powers over transport, skills, housing, planning and employment support.

In due course, the government will publish a new devolution framework, setting out the new powers and flexibilities available to you. While we will not force places to take on a metro Mayor, we will not shy away from making the case for their huge advantages, with some powers continuing to be reserved for institutions with directly elected leaders, such as Mayoral Combined Authorities.

We continue to believe that new devolution settlements should be tailored to sensible economic geographies so that local leaders can act at the scale needed to effectively deploy their powers. In the majority of cases that will require local authorities to come together in new combined or combined county authorities. I encourage you to begin discussions with your neighbouring authorities on this basis.

I would welcome proposals by the end of September to participate in a first set of devolution settlements.

So, get your tickets for the Devolution Express departing from platform 9 3/4 at Westminster for destinations across the country! There will be more Mayors than you can poke a stick at.

If you want to know more about how this will work, then get in touch!

Until next week,

Henry