The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is set to dramatically change the landscape of governance in England and reintroduce a form of sub-regional planning. It would be “devolution by default” for local authorities.
The Bill introduces ‘Strategic Authorities’, a new category of authority aimed at streamlining the devolution of powers from Westminster to local authorities.
Whether you’re in Greater Manchester or Devon, these new authorities aim to simplify how we manage transport, housing, and economic growth at a regional level.
This would include combined authorities, combined county authorities, and the Greater London Authority all playing a role.
MORE SAY FOR LOCAL LEADERS
But that’s just the beginning. In practice, the Bill means local leaders will have more say over crucial issues such as transport and local infrastructure.
For instance, Strategic Authorities will be responsible for transport planning, housing development, and economic growth initiatives.
They’ll also introduce Local Growth Plans tailored to their specific needs, ensuring that local strengths and challenges are acknowledged and addressed.
PLANNING POWERS
Mayors will have planning powers akin to the Mayor of London, with the ability to call in planning applications; if for example, an local planning authority is likely to refuse housing development despite it supporting the strategy in the SDS.
Mayors will also be able to prepare Mayoral Development Orders (MDOs) to grant planning permission for development and take a proactive role in promoting housing growth; as well as setting up Mayoral Development Corporations (MDC) to deliver complex, large-scale development, such as new settlements for example.
However, many of these new powers only come into effect once Strategic Development Strategies are in place.
So, this will be the first step to truly deliver cooperation between our local authorities – and in a much more substantial way than we currently do, by simply preparing a Duty to Cooperate Statement as part of a Local Plan Examination.
