Driving Growth and Reform: What the English Devolution White Paper Means for Local Government
The UK Government has published the English Devolution White Paper, setting out proposals for major reform of the structure, functions and powers of local government in England, which will be implemented through an English Devolution Bill.
The White Paper has been introduced to take forward the Government’s mission to “relight the fire of our economy and ignite growth in every region”. It says that devolution across England is fundamental to achieving growth, more joined-up delivery of public services and politics being done with communities, not to them.
Proposals for change include:
- Widening devolution across England by continuing to develop new strategic authorities and legislating for a ministerial directive to provide for the creation of strategic authorities in areas where local leaders have not been able to make progress.
The Government intends to legislate for the legal concept of a strategic authority, which will either be a foundation strategic authority or a mayoral strategic authority. Mayoral strategic authorities who meet specified eligibility criteria may be designated as established mayoral authorities, which will unlock further devolution such as an integrated settlement. The legislation will also provide for strategic authorities to change structure after local government reorganisation, for example changing from a combined county authority to a combined authority if a two-tier local government area becomes single-tier. The Government has suggested that strategic authorities should have a mandate to act strategically to drive growth and support the shaping of public services in the following areas of competence:
- Transport and local infrastructure.
- Skills and employment support.
- Housing and strategic planning.
- Economic development and regeneration.
- Environment and climate change.
- Health, well-being and public service reform.
- Public safety.
- Introducing a framework in legislation that sets out the powers that go with each type of authority.
- Increasing the powers of mayors in mayoral strategic authorities, including moving mayoral strategic authorities to simple majority voting, providing an integrated funding settlement that enables strategic authorities to move funding between policy areas. The Government has a strong preference for authorities with a mayor, so the deepest powers will only be available for such authorities. The Government will consider proposals for local authorities to establish combined authorities or combined county authorities without mayors, as a way of working in partnership and as a platform to consider mayoral devolution in the future.
The White Paper says that strategic authority areas with a mayor will see major benefits including:
- Prioritisation to agree and establish devolution in their areas.
- Powers from a strengthened devolution framework.
- A pathway to unlocking higher levels of devolution, including access to an integrated settlement.
- Flexible allocated funding, with a long-term investment fund.
- A representative on the Council of Nations and Regions and on the Mayoral Council.
- A mandate to develop a local growth plan, with local growth priorities agreed with the Government.
- Membership of the Mayoral Data Council.
- Changes in transport powers, including giving mayors of mayoral strategic authorities the right to request greater devolution of rail services, infrastructure and station control and powers to co-ordinate their road network.
- Supporting mayors in supporting labour market and skills needs.
- Changes in housing and planning powers, including powers for mayors to call in planning applications of strategic importance, powers for mayors to charge developers a mayoral levy to ensure that developments have the necessary associated infrastructure, and increasing the accountability of Homes England to mayors.
- Environment and climate change powers for strategic authorities. The Government proposes to give combined county authorities and combined authorities a clear mandate to lead on local nature recovery strategies and wider environmental delivery.
- Work between the Government and mayors and local authorities to devolve levers of growth in the sectors of culture, heritage, sport and tourism. The Government also intends to produce a national youth strategy, aimed at empowering young people to have a strong voice in local government. The Government will also work with mayors and local authorities to ensure that public appointments to major cultural institutions are representative of the whole country.
- Strengthening the role of strategic authorities in supporting businesses and research.
- Joining up public services. The Government’s long-term ambition is to align public service boundaries, including job centres, police, probation, fire, health services and strategic and local authorities. Initial proposals include making mayors responsible by default for services where geographies align with police and crime commissioners and fire and rescue authorities and giving strategic authorities duties relating to health improvement and health inequalities.
- Actions and policies aimed at community empowerment, including replacing the right to bid for assets of community value with a right to buy. The Government also proposes to strengthen the ability of local authorities to take over the management of vacant residential premises and introduce large selective licensing schemes to improve conditions in the private rental sector without requiring approval from the Secretary of State. The Government will also explore the potential to give support and discretionary tools to local authorities to enable local authorities to have some control over the number of premises that can exacerbate health and anti-social behaviour challenges and to limit the access of vulnerable communities to such premises.
- Funding reform, including the provision of multi-year funding settlements for local authorities. The Government also proposes to reduce the number of restrictive grants to local authorities, rationalise the number of capital-focused growth funds, and streamline and rationalise reporting requirements relating to grants.
- Review of requirements for local authorities to have the Secretary of State’s consent for the use of powers. The Government intends to remove these requirements unless they are absolutely necessary and to legislate to make such removal easier in the future. The Government also intends wherever possible to remove requirements for the Secretary of State’s consent for local authority making of byelaws.
- A programme of local government reorganisation for two-tier areas or unitary councils where there is evidence of failure or their size or boundaries are hindering their ability to deliver sustainable and high-quality public services.
- Reform of audit of local government, including the abolition of the Office for Local Government.
- Changes to the powers and duties of relevant authorities to address allegations of misconduct by their members. The Government will consult on proposals for:
- A mandatory code of conduct, which would cover issues not featuring in the current minimum requirements.
- An obligation for principal local authorities to convene formal standards committees.
- A national body to deal with the most serious cases and appeals.
- Powers to suspend councillors for up to six months for breaches of their code of conduct.
- Powers to disqualify councillors who are subject to disqualification more than once and powers to apply immediate disqualification in some instances of serious misconduct.
- Interim suspension of councillors whilst under investigation.
- Publication of the outcomes of all investigations into allegations of breach of the code of conduct
- Establishment of a local government workforce development group to identify practical solutions to help resolve and improve issues relating to capacity, recruitment and intention and to promote the local government sector as a great place to work.
- Provision for remote attendance at council meetings and for proxy voting.
- Removal of the requirement for local authorities to publish the home addresses of their members. This is intended to avoid inconsistencies in the responses of local authorities to requests to remove such details and to ensure that prospective candidates feel safe to stand for election for public office.
Next Steps
The Government intends to introduce the English Devolution Bill in the first Parliamentary session, to bring the devolutionary framework into legislation. The Government will also invite proposals for local government reorganisation for individual areas.
Comments
The White Paper contains a range of exciting proposals to shape the future of local government in England. The establishment of a concept of a strategic authority and definition of the different levels of strategic authority could provide helpful clarity about the status and powers of such authorities, as well as help to future-proof them against the need for major changes in the event of re-organisation in the future. Councils in areas where new strategic authorities may be developed may be interested in the voting arrangements and will be keen to ensure that they are able to have an effective input into the work of those authorities. The potential for the development of the powers and mandates of strategic authorities will give them an important role in contributing to local growth and the effective delivery of services in their areas. Provisions relating to attendance and voting at local authority meetings could be of significant practical use to local authorities in arranging and conducting meetings. The removal of requirements for the Secretary of State’s consent could have a significant impact on the efficient exercise by local authorities of their powers. Concerns have been expressed for some time over the limited provision to take action over inappropriate conduct by members of local authorities in England. The proposed reform of the member conduct regime could be helpful in addressing such concerns but local authorities will be keen to see that any new arrangements provide a robust regime for promoting high standards of conduct, without introducing extensive bureaucracy and potential for challenge.
If you require any support regarding the White Paper proposals and how it will affect local authorities, please contact Clare Hardy