The LGA supports existing combined authorities as well as councils working on new devolution deals
By 2030, the Government has said that every part of England that wants one will have a devolution deal with powers at, or approaching, the highest level of devolution, and a simplified, long-term funding settlement.
To help with this ambition – set out in the 2022 White Paper, ‘Levelling Up the UK’ – the LGA works with all its member authorities to ensure they have the right skills to collaborate successfully and, if wanted, to develop potential new devolution deals.
The LGA’s regional teams are the first contact for this support.
There is also activity under way to ensure that combined authorities have a clear understanding of what they can access from the LGA, and how it can be developed to make it specific to their needs.
There are currently nine combined authorities, excluding the Greater London Authority, which comes under different legislation. They are Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North of Tyne, South Yorkshire, Tees Valley, West Midlands, West of England, and West Yorkshire.
“The LGA works with all member authorities to ensure they have the right skills”
Each has a mayor who is accountable for ensuring the combined authority works in partnership with its constituent local councils.
The Government has given each devolution deal area an amount of funding and so, together, the constituent councils and the combined authorities must develop plans on how they can allocate the money and bring in new funding to help their local area prosper for the good of local people.
These nine will soon be joined by new deal areas that are currently in development – including East Midlands Devolution Partnership, York and North Yorkshire, Norfolk County Council Deal and Suffolk County Council Deal.
The new areas have been allocated funding for a deal and have the initial legislative processes completed. They are waiting for finalisation of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Bill, currently before Parliament, to allow completion of all the necessary legal processes to become a fully functioning mayoral combined authority or county deal.
The Government is also working closely with several other areas that have expressed an interest in having deals and it is hoped that these will all be announced soon.
In addition to its work with fledging devolved areas, the LGA continues to support all existing areas through six officer-led network groups – on human resources, governance and scrutiny, communications, finance, housing and planning, and workforce and skills.
Over the past six months, the LGA has commissioned the Leadership Centre to work with each network and carry out a review to help each group identify its purpose, how they want to work in future, the challenges that they face or will be facing, areas where more support is needed, and how to integrate the developing and emerging deal areas. This piece of work will conclude soon and a feedback session is due to be held in the autumn.
- If you would like to know more about the combined authority officer-led networks or have any thoughts or ideas that you want to share with Jenni French, the LGA’s Programme Lead on Devolution Support, please email [email protected]. See also the LGA’s Devolution hub.