The issue of devolution within England is an age old question that has plagued rulers throughout history. From Elizabeth I’s struggles to contain The Council of the North to New Labour’s failed attempt at creating regional assemblies, the issue of how English localities should organise their affairs has often proven to be a tremendously difficult question to answer. This is still no different in our present day, with all major political parties scrambling to come up with ideas on how to progress devolution, particularly in England.
The current state of devolution across England is, to be frank, an overly complex web of assemblies, authorities and committees. Seemingly nothing is symmetrical, and nothing is uniform. Just to add to the confusion, each Combined Local Authority has different sets of powers and support from Westminster. This results in a confusing and asymmetrical system that is often difficult to navigate.
In recent history, after the success of the devolution referendums in Scotland and Wales, the New Labour Government in the early 2000s planned to replicate these referendums in each region of England, this plan fell at the first hurdle when the proposal of a regional assembly was put to the people of the North East before being rejected by almost 80% of the 48% of voters that took an interest. The failure of the North East Referendum led to the indefinite postponement of any similar plans in other regions. The issue of English devolution was not touched upon again until the Coalition Government began a process of allowing local councils to combine their powers into a Combined Local Authority, along with a directly elected mayor. Since then, Westminster has moved to grant more powers and tax revenue to these assemblies, and the assemblies themselves, led by their mayors, have pushed tirelessly for new settlements. Surely then, this model is the future of English devolution?
The UK (in particular, England) is one of the most centralised countries in Europe, with an absolute majority of its political and financial capital laying in a couple of post-codes in London, it is no surprise then that the issue of how to spread power around the country has always been topical and hotly contested. One only has to compare the UK to a country such as Germany, where, according to a IPPR North study, the equivalent of 69p of every £1 goes to local government, compared to a whopping 95p to the pound in the UK.
The major parties are unsurprisingly confused and conflicted by this issue and continue to offer up differing views on how the process of devolution should play out. The Lib Dems probably have been the most consistent on the issue and have been banging on about the need for a federal UK, codified by a constitution for decades, supporting New Labour’s failed regional assemblies plan.
The Conservatives of course established the new combined assemblies and have subsequently set a course for gradual, case-by-case deals, that have since allowed the authorities to take control over such things as NHS budgets and strategy and transport infrastructure. Most recently, Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt announced “trailblazer deals” in a government white paper that called for a ‘devolution revolution’. The proposed deal sets a course for ever more funding to be offered to Birmingham and Manchester specifically as well as further powers over education, skills and housing. Their reasoning for this is based on their assessment that centralisation has led to economic stagnation.
The old voices of New Labour have been brought in to advise Kier Starmer’s party in terms of policy, relevant to this area has been Gordon Brown’s return, in a review on Britain’s constitution, Brown suggested “There is a strong correlation between Britain’s overcentralised political power and its geographically concentrated prosperity”. Spurred on by this, Labour’s ‘levelling up’ plan now revolves entirely around devolving power to the local authorities, Starmer has proposed the rather evocatively named ‘Take Back Control’ that aims to “spread control out of Westminster and devolve new powers”. Whether their plan will be a continuation of the Conservative style, incremental changes over a decade, or a one off, complete restructure of the devolution settlement is yet to be seen.
The specifics of both party’s plans are still somewhat unclear. One thing that is clear however is that all main parties are very much aligned on the need for further devolution, how far they are willing to continue down this road however is still a matter of debate. It would be logical to assume that the steady march towards handing more power in case-by-case deals to the existing authorities until they eventually reach a stopping point similar to that of Germany’s federal units (that have powers to tax and spend), is the likely long-term destination for English devolution – regardless of which party forms a Government next term.
