A Thinking Business publication
When the government published its English Devolution white paper in the final days of 2024, the focus was on empowering local communities to take back control from Westminster. With an ambitious plan to establish strategic authorities across England and allow them to take charge of funding in areas including housing, regeneration, local growth, transport, skills and employment, the potential impact is far-reaching.
A consultation process will now take place to draw the new map upon which the strategic authorities will be based, but Trowers & Hamlins has been at the forefront, working with amongst others, the Cheshire and Warrington region to navigate the changes after it was chosen as part of the government’s priority programme. The combined Cheshire and Warrington authority will bring together three councils and is one of the first six new authorities that will hold mayoral elections in May 2026 – the rest of the country should follow a year later.
Paul McDermott, Partner in the Real Estate team and Public Sector group at Trowers & Hamlins. says: “The benefits of the devolution plans are that authorities get more powers to decide things locally. What’s more, unlike with previous reforms, this is not about redrawing boundaries or shuffling budgets, but is very much focused on local decision-making to better drive business growth and economic development.”
Driving economic growth
Supporting the local business environment is one of the key motivations for the devolution strategy put forward by government. “Devolution means more investment in local areas,” says the white paper, which adds: “We will strengthen mayors’ ability to attract international investment, support business to thrive and grow, and create vibrant places where people want to live and work.”
There are a number of areas set out in the plans that should deliver real benefits for UK businesses. First, because strategic authorities will have powers to target investment into skills, housing, transport and local infrastructure, local companies will be well-positioned to benefit from policies specifically design to work for them. There will be sector-specific support for regional economic clusters, driving life sciences in places like Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, financial services in West Yorkshire, clean energy in the North East and advanced manufacturing in Greater Manchester and the West Midlands, for example.
Amardeep Gill, National Head of the Public Sector team team at Trowers and a Partner in the Birmingham office, says:
“The creation of strategic authorities will allow for geographic consensus on routes to growth, with the government talking about these structures resulting in enhanced productivity, more efficient operating environments and better access to resources.”
He adds: “Local businesses can connect into the new strategic authorities via new communication forums, and will need to start thinking more regionally about how they can influence decision-making.”
The strategic authorities also come with new multi-year funding arrangements, giving more certainty at local level about how much capital will be available for investment.
Gill says: “Right now, local authorities don’t know how much they are going to get from central government on a multi-year basis. These new arrangements will mean multi-year funding settlements, so strategic authorities can set agendas that they can stick to, with more certainty about how much money they are going to get and when. Businesses can also make investments knowing what is going to happen.”
Investing in local infrastructure
Transport has long been at the heart of what new authorities are tasked with delivering, and the renewed focus on an integrated system for roads, rail, buses and active travel has the potential to bring plenty of benefits to business. Along with the opportunities to win work in the projects that will deliver enhanced local infrastructure, commuter times can be reduced and workforce mobility enhanced by well targeted transport investment.
“One of the longstanding barriers to employment in some areas has been public transport,” says McDermott.
“Poor public transport creates disadvantages for workers and creates blackspots where businesses struggle to thrive without a good pool of talent.”
Housing is another area that will come under greater local control. This government has made housing a key priority and set out an aspiration to build 1.5 million homes during the course of the parliament. The devolution plan hands strategic authorities the ability to develop local housing targets, streamline planning processes and bring forward development.
Gill says: “Housing is often an issue that impacts local businesses, particularly if workers cannot afford to live in vicinities.
“The changes will give authorities the ability to increase affordable housing near business hubs, ensuring employees can live nearby and supporting talent retention.”
Devolution is also intended to facilitate skills and employment provision that is more relevant to local jobs. The new strategic authorities will be able to develop local skills improvement plans, taking responsibility for both adult skills, post-16 education and training, and getting people back into work.
The approach has already been tested in current devolved authorities, with Greater Manchester taking responsibility for its own adult education budget back in 2019. Since then, it has taken various steps to expand access to adult education, with a focus on meeting the needs of the local labour market. In total, since devolution, over 148,000 residents of the region have accessed over 320,000 grant-funded courses.
Gill says: “The new authorities will have the ability to invest in, and support, key skills that play to the strengths of the local community and the needs of its businesses.
The result should be a lot more joined-up and strategic for business than it has been previously.”
A new route to engagement
With decision-making being actively decentralised away from Whitehall, it now falls to local areas to identify what type of authority they want and how regional leadership should take shape.
For companies across the UK, there will be new authorities to navigate, relationships to build and opportunities to engage.
“It will no longer necessarily be a question of lobbying parliament to get things done,” says Gill.
“The existing strategic authorities, like Greater London and Greater Manchester, have proved to be quite good at reaching out to businesses and working with them.
“We have seen collaboration getting a lot better, and it is hoped that devolution will now bring those benefits to more parts of the country.”
With greater clarity around budgets, timelines and strategic objectives also an intended outcome, there is much for UK plc to embrace in these planned reforms.
