8Looking ahead
103.Devolution attracts cross-party support, particularly from our Committee. We welcome the fact that, at start of this new Parliament, the policy occupies such a prominent position on the Government’s agenda and acknowledge the Secretary of State’s significant role in this. We expect to see a continued commitment by the Government to devolution throughout this Parliament, including moves towards fiscal devolution.
104.At this stage, all conclusions on this topic are necessarily provisional; we anticipate returning to it throughout the Parliament as devolution deals continue to be agreed and their practical implications begin to develop. We have identified many aspects that will need review and further consideration over the next two or three years and set out how we will contribute to this below. However, there are various issues which should be addressed now:
- Increasing public engagement and consultation throughout the deal-making process;
- Making that process more open and transparent;
- The need for a system for the monitoring and review of deals once in place; and
- The need for clear objectives and measures for local areas to judge the impact of their deal.
Our ambition is that, by the end of the Parliament, the Government and local authorities will have reached the position of devolution by right, with the Government having announced the powers that will be on offer to local government. This would be a starting point for even more ambitious and wide-ranging deals in the future.
105.As an immediate first step to inject more openness, transparency and public engagement into the deal-making process and assist local areas embarking on deals and preparing proposals, all information pertaining to devolution—agreed and updated deals, comparisons between deals, announcements relating to devolution, the criteria by which proposals are judged, objectives and measures, suggested timeframes, best practice in public engagement and scrutiny, the annual reports on devolution and, in time, the results from the monitoring of deals—should be published and collated on a Government website for all to access. The devolution resources hub267 created by the Local Government Association (LGA) performs a similar function and we suggest that, within the next two or three months, the Cities and Local Growth Unit works with the LGA to create and run its own devolution website.
106.Before the end of this Parliament, once the majority of deals have bedded in and elected mayors have established their positions, we intend to undertake a review of the progress of devolution in England which will examine the issues that we have identified in this report. The review is likely to consider, but will not be limited to, the following:
Success and scope:
- The success of devolution deals, measured by, for example, improvements to local economies and health economies, and whether we have reached the stage where powers can automatically be devolved to local areas as of right, and whether it is time for negotiation of further, more ambitious deals and/or a more comprehensive package of devolved measures between Government and local areas as a whole.
- What further powers areas have accumulated over time, including fiscal powers, and whether there are any powers not currently being devolved to local areas which should be.
- The impact on areas which do not have a devolution deal.
- Whether the Government is capturing data at the right level—for example, city region and combined authority level—to assess the effectiveness of deals.
- Local authorities’ views on the Government’s commitment to devolution, working with different Departments and the process of negotiation and consultation.
- Progress with the development of further devolution to London, outside of the framework of the Bill.
- The rate at which the Government negotiated and agreed the 38 devolution bids submitted by local areas for the deadline of 4 September 2015 and whether any new deals are being agreed.
- The number of deals proposed since 4 September 2015 with new areas and the number of existing deals which have been extended.
- The geographic spread of deals and the extent of devolution to non-metropolitan areas.
- Whether areas without deals which adjoin or are nearby those with deals are at an advantage or disadvantage and, if the latter, how this could be addressed.
Governance and accountability:
- With particular regards to health devolution, how accountability is working in practice.
- The impact elected mayors are having on local areas.
- How scrutiny is working in practice and whether local areas are building on the scrutiny requirements set out in the Devolution Bill.
- The extent to which local areas are engaging and consulting the public and whether local democracy has benefitted from devolution.
Wider issues:
- Whether there are any signs that devolution is encouraging the restructuring of local government—for example, towards local authorities in two-tier areas becoming unitaries or a single, large authority across a combined authority area.
- How access to new sources of local finance—for example, 100 per cent retention of business rate growth—have impacted on local areas.
- How devolution deals relate to the debate on the UK constitution and whether the deals, once embedded in local areas, are a balance to devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
267 Local Government Association, ‘DevoNext resources hub’, accessed 4 January 2015
© Parliamentary copyright 2015
Prepared 29 January 2016