As an influential think tank close to Number 10 sets out a far-reaching new approach to Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCAs), it’s increasingly clear that devolution is going to be ever-more central to a whole range of decisions.
Last week Labour Together, a Think Tank originally created by the man who now runs Keir Starmer’s office, released its proposals to empower regional Mayors across the country. The plans build on the previous Government’s commitment, echoed in the Labour manifesto, to roll out regional structures and pass powers down to every area of England. However, they go a step further in offering more local control of public services, expanding on what has previously been a pretty fixed list of options for Mayors to choose from.
What does that mean in practice?
Well, if Labour’s new Devolution Bill mirrors these proposals, it means significant change in the way local systems work, with Mayors and Combined Authorities playing an increasingly powerful role in not just investment and infrastructure, but across all of our public services.
There are five key recommendations in the proposals:
- Unifying powers through Mayors – the idea is to give regional Mayors and Combined Authorities the chance to have formal powers in the current structure of public services, like regional level procurement for social care, for example, or bringing together the roles of Police and Fire Commissioners or Integrated Care Boards in the NHS into one place.
- ‘First refusal’ on delivery of new projects – this would be an opportunity for Mayors to take on national programmes and deliver them locally, like rolling out bespoke local schemes for getting people into employment, or managing school building programmes on a local, rather than a national, level.
- Devolved, flexible funding – extending the scope for regional Mayors to decide how to spend their budget gives much greater opportunities to pick up on local priorities, and more power for Mayors to direct ‘the system’. If you hold the purse strings you’re a powerful actor, and this proposal would eventually give all Mayors the same kind of clout that perhaps only Sadiq Khan in London currently has. Andy Burnham and Richard Parker are due to receive these powers in 2025.
- MCA level commissioning – this could be a powerful intervention in public services, aimed at tackling the challenges of disjointed and complicated systems. Commissioning children’s care beds or social care provision at this level could have profound implications for the market in both spaces. It could also mean changes to the way that capital projects are managed and delivered. It’s a wide-ranging power, which could have a significant impact for the private sector.
- Co-terminus boundaries – perhaps a dry, administrative change on the surface, but one with profound implications, particularly for new Authorities with messy local structures. One set of boundaries for the local MCA, police, fire, health and other public bodies would be a significant structural shift in many areas. The hope is this will bring more coherence to local services, but any changes could also mean significant disruption for a long period.
Given the way that Mayoral Authorities have expanded and spread across England, now under successive governments, it’s clear that not only are they here to stay, but they’re set to be given an increasing set of powers and responsibilities that will cut across everything the public sector does in their region.
It could mean changes in procurement practices, funding models, and local priorities. It definitely means more decisions taken at an MCA level that impact on how both the public and private sectors operate across a whole swathe of the economy. Done well it could mean a more joined-up and coherent system, with a single point of contact in the MCA at the top, and more effective outcomes. Done badly, as with any major change, it could mean years of disruption and complexity. For the incumbent Mayors, it is also a big reputational, and electoral, risk.
Here at Cavendish, we’re following these changes closely, through our regional offices and a team of experts across the country who have been directly involved in working with and for Combined Authorities. There’s a whole new set of relationships and structures to understand here, as more and more MCAs come online in the coming months and years. Get in touch here if we can support you in navigating it all.
by Ben Bradley