Broadstone E-News 16th January 2024
Devolution Option Agreed
Both the current and the previous governments have been keen to roll out further devolution options to the various regions.
Quoting from the Government White Paper: England is one of the most centralised countries in the developed world. Devolution across England is fundamental to achieving the change the public expect and deserve: growth, more joined-up delivery of public services, and politics being done with communities, not to them.
Mayoral devolution works because Mayors can use their mandate for change to take the difficult decisions needed to drive growth; their standing and soft power to convene local partners to tackle shared problems; and their platform to tackle the obstacles to growth that need a regional approach.
Various deals have been discussed locally for a number of years now without reaching a beneficial conclusion. Many of councillors on BCP council would have favoured a BCP only deal however, on 16th December, the Government issued a revised White Paper that set a target population for each Mayoral area of 1.5m. That ruled out a BCP only deal, a fact that was confirmed in subsequent conversations with the Government.
The paper stated that it would not allow any ‘devolution islands’ so with all our neighbours submitting proposals, we would have been forced by the Government to join one of them. Therefore it was better for us to make that decision ourselves.
This new white paper also added a date of Friday 10th January for submitting a proposal. So all of a sudden, we had just over 3 weeks, across the Christmas period, to agree a proposal. BCP Council Leader, Millie Earl, met with Baroness Taylor last week where she agreed an extension to that date to allow the full Council to meet on Wednesday 15th to discuss it and come to a democratic decision.
There were 2 options to consider; Hampshire and Solent, including Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, or Heart of Wessex, a much larger geographical area including Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire, with the possible later inclusion of Swindon.
A long debate was had on the merits of both options with the Heart of Wessex coming out on top.
We have yet to get a full understanding of what this may mean for all of our residents, given the little information provided by Government so far, but it allows us to progress to the next stage of negotiations.
Many of you may well be sceptical of this process and may point to BCP as an example of something that has yet to deliver the promised benefits. But this is different, and given we are being forced into making a decision before the devolution policy has been fully scrutinised and debated in Parliament and although we don't agree with how it's been done, it is essential that we act to get the best for residents. London and Manchester are good examples of where that has happened.
To save making this article any longer, here are some links to further information, we will, of course, keep you advised of developments.
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