Response to the English Devolution White Paper (16 December 2024)

Dr Jack Newman, Research Fellow at the School for Policy Studies at the University of Bristol and part of the TRUUD national government academic team commented:

“The most striking aspect of these reforms is their continuity with existing English devolution arrangements – this is an attempt to standardise, systematise, broaden, and deepen existing arrangements. At the same time, the move towards standardisation means some fairly major shake-ups for England’s existing patchwork of local government. Most notably, there is a plan to replace county and district councils with single-tier unitary authorities.

“When we consider the consequences of these reforms for urban development, these mayoral combined authorities, or ‘strategic authorities’ as they’ll be known, will eventually be established in every part of England and will be significantly strengthened. They will be responsible for developing ‘local growth plans’ and ‘spatial development strategies’, which will give them a much more prominent role in urban development and urban planning. There are also arrangements for these plans to impact decisions made in Whitehall. It is important to consider all this in the context of the governments ‘bulldoze the blockers’ rhetoric.

“In terms of championing health with these new urban development powers, it will of course depend on the ambition of mayors and other officials in these strategic authorities. However, strategic authorities are to be given a new statutory duty on public health, laid out in the devolution framework. The government acknowledge that mayors have a “key role to play in taking action, particularly on the social determinants of health” and that they should “drive a ‘health in all policies’ approach in line with Mission government” (MHCLG, 2024: 79). To aid this, mayors will be appointed as chairs of Integrated Care Partnerships. There is also a longer-term plan to align boundaries of strategic authorities and integrated care systems, and an attempt to encourage closer integration of policy initiatives.

“Overall, the English Devolution White Paper is likely to precipitate significant changes in how cities are governed and in how urban development is managed and delivered. It may also represent significant positive advances on making urban environments healthier. Of course, one of the consequences of devolution is that much depends on what local leaders choose to do. Time will tell.”