Everything in its right place
Establishing strong organisations and practices for successful devolution
Author: Sandy Forsyth |
Everything in its right place
establishing strong organisations and practices for successful devolution
England is currently undergoing a dual transformation: that of Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) and the expansion of devolution across metropolitan and, increasingly, rural areas.
This period of transition will be marked by significant structural changes impacting the organisational culture, service delivery mechanisms, and accountability processes of local and strategic authorities.
When it comes to devolution, there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach: the success of strategic governance is heavily influenced by the specific histories, civic identities, and geographies that define England’s places. Everything in its right place sets out ways in which new and maturing strategic authorities can adapt to the needs of place while still aligning with a national policy that encourages regional growth.
There is a need for a landscape of devolution that supports the genuine decentralisation of responsibilities and resources to regional and local levels, including by means of enhanced fiscal devolution. Without a strong foundation that elevates place to the centre of policy decisions, the ongoing and potential shift of power into England’s regions will not be the success that it can be.
Key points
Place-based and strategic delivery
Place-based policy should define “place” as a composite of an area’s tangible and intangible assets and a shared vision, requiring a holistic, asset-based approach that prioritises bottom-up accountability over traditional top-down strategies. Strategic delivery must leverage the momentum of devolution, balancing regional efficiency with the specific needs and identities of local communities.
Models of strategic governance
Strategic governance models must address the significant asymmetries in devolution across England by moving beyond city-region templates through frameworks that accommodate both mayoral and non-mayoral authorities. Success depends on national policy being adaptable to five key place-based characteristics: history, civic identity, geography, institutional alignment, and human expertise.
Governance, leadership, and the role of the mayor
The directly elected mayor acts as a central democratic figure for place and as a primary liaison with central government, but require a robust framework to define their relationship with both the council and the communities they represent. Successful governance also hinges on unified leadership and the ability to foster innovative organisational cultures to navigate the complex transitions of devolution and local government reorganisation.
Fiscal measures and funding regional growth
Genuine decentralisation and fiscal devolution offer significant potential benefits for regional growth, provided policy is tailored to local knowledge rather than being directed by top-down control. To avoid reinforcing regional asymmetries, the government must move beyond a “deal-first” approach and provide a clear roadmap for fiscal autonomy that includes strengthened external accountability for spending decisions.
Accountability and scrutiny
As power shifts toward strategic authorities, internal Local Scrutiny Committees should be empowered with better resourcing, training, and constitutional safeguards to provide essential checks on mayoral and executive power. This internal reform should be bolstered by a minimum national standard for scrutiny and strengthened external accountability for spending decisions.
Recommendations
National policy:
A devolution framework that works beyond the metro-mayoral model: Government’s commitment to devolution is growing, but policy remains uneven. A more coherent national framework is needed if devolution is to support places with different geographies, governance models and economic profiles.
A clear institutional settlement following local government reorganisation: As LGR proceeds, ambiguity over who does what risks weakening accountability and frustrating delivery. Roles must be settled early rather than allowed to drift.
Stronger expectations for scrutiny, governance and external accountability: Current strategic authority scrutiny arrangements are too variable and too dependent on local capacity. As such, national policy should introduce a minimum standard for scrutiny in strategic authorities, fund scrutiny and governance capacity as part of the core devolution offer, and strengthen external accountability for spending decisions.
Strategic authorities:
Institutional foundations should be built early, not improvised later: Strategic authorities need to establish basic organisational discipline from the outset if they are to become credible, durable, and transparent institutions. They must therefore adopt a written constitution that defines institutional purpose, core values, priority outcomes, and the authority’s understanding of place and public value.
Strategy should be organised around the real geography of place: Not all strategic authorities have a single dominant urban core. Effective governance must therefore reflect how places actually function rather than forcing all areas into one model, organising strategy around networks of regional opportunities, anchor organisations, and local economic relationships.
Strategic scale should be used to support whole-place working: As a matter of practice, strategic authorities should use their convening power to strengthen whole-place, prevention-first working across local partners, and align their strategic responsibilities more closely with locally identified needs, assets, and delivery relationships so that devolution operates as a practical system of coordination rather than an additional bureaucratic tier.
Research kindly sponsored by:
