The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill has received Royal Assent – meaning many local authorities will soon be able to take charge of their own growth agendas.
The Act introduces new measures to expand devolution and empower mayors and local people. It introduces ‘Strategic Authorities’ into law, to make it quicker to devolve powers out from Whitehall. Strategic Authorities with elected Mayors will receive more devolved powers over transport, planning, housing, and economic regeneration.
Mayoral authorities already exists in areas including Liverpool, Manchester, the North East and London.
Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Greater Essex, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, Sussex and Brighton, will have their first mayoral elections over the next two years under the Devolution Priority Programme.
The Act also establishes Local Scrutiny Committees for mayoral authorities, which will provide scrutiny of local public spending and decision making.
Further measures in the Act include:
- Mandating Mayoral Strategic Authorities to develop local growth plans, aligning regional economic strategies with national policy.
- A new bespoke duty for Mayors and Strategic Authorities to ensure they formally consider local health improvement and health inequalities when making policy decisions.
- New powers for Mayors to intervene in planning applications of potential strategic importance, make mayoral development orders and charge a mayoral community infrastructure levy on developers.
- The establishment of the Local Audit Office to help manage council finances, ensuring auditing is carried out more efficiently and transparently.