Devolution’s in the air

Devolution is definitely in the air among so many of the English regions as we end 2024.

My own home area of Greater Lincolnshire took a step closer on the formal path to devolution in the early autumn with the announcement by the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) that we will see an elected mayor lead a combined authority next May.

The same MHCLG announcement set out the formal legislative pathway for our near neighbours, Hull & East Yorkshire and other English authority areas in the South West and the North West.

Eddisons colleagues in the firm’s East Midlands offices are a few months down the line with the launch of The East Midlands Combined County Authority in the spring, followed by the election of the first ever regional mayor of the East Midlands in last May’s election round.

And, of course, colleagues have been dealing with an elected mayoral function and the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority for many years now.

Even if not on the formal path to devolution yet, many more English Local Authority areas are working collectively and are in serious discussions with each other – and Whitehall – in making the case for devolution.

While it can be argued that the motivation of the last Labour government of the late 1990s/early 2000s for establishing the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) was, largely, the raw party politics of diluting the power of the English Shire authorities – the current Labour administration’s enthusiasm for devolution is surely motivated by a reality check.

In line with most of the commercial and development interests, central government’s commitment to devolving powers is because of the realisation that national economic growth can be delivered at a regional level.

Unlike the RDAs, devolution sees each regional authority not just tasked as delivery vehicles but equipped with the legislative powers and access to the levers of powers and, of course, the funding devolving down from Whitehall departments to make sure they can and do deliver.

That a devolved authority is being seen as the delivery vehicle in any one region was the Eddisons’ takeaway from last month’s National Planning Forum’s ‘Uncapping Growth’ event in Cambridge and at which Dr Nik Johnson, Mayor of the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority was a panellist.

To have one single delivery vehicle is highly desirable for developments interests and investors – not to mention their professional property advisors.

The structure of English local authorities is complex. It’s often difficult enough for indigenous businesses, never mind international interests, to understand the limits of each district’s, county’s, borough’s, unitary authority’s, metropolitan authority’s remit and reach when it comes to matters of planning, transport, mineral extraction, education and healthcare provision.

Overlay that in having to deal with utilities such as water and grid networks operators and providers, and you can see why the development sector is going to welcome the streamlining of guidance and permissions being accessed, at least in the initial stages, through one representative regional authority that is sure of the ground it’s on and the authority with which it speaks.

Setting aside the calls being made in some locations, such as the East Midlands, for these new regional authorities to turbo-charge and become full blown Development Corporations – of which some of my more mature Peterborough colleagues can speak – their formation is welcomed.

For us offering professional property services in and across regions, we are looking to devolution to not only streamline local authority powers when it comes to enabling strategic development and economic prosperity, but also for the new regional authorities to act as a showcase in proactively promoting our regions to inward investors.

It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it if we are to go for growth.