Transport, housing, skills and planning responsibilities – along with control over new long-term budgets from central government – will be key weapons in the armoury of so-called ‘Metro Mayors’, who will be voted in on 4 May.
Six regions are the first to have the system, similar to London: Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Liverpool City Region, West of England, West Midlands, Greater Manchester and the Tees Valley. Collectively they will have powers to spend 4.85bn in a 30-year investment fund.
Says Communities Secretary Sajid Javid: “The powers will be held by a directly-elected mayor who, like the Mayor of London, will be able to represent the region on the international stage.”
Sheffield City Region is now likely to be in a second round of voting, expected in 2018.
Exactly what the metro mayors will be able to do is determined by the individual deals that each city-region has agreed with government.
Over time, the powers of the metro mayor may increase, as has happened in London.
The Devolution Bill is a deliberately non-prescriptive and enabling piece of legislation that allows for the devolution of almost anything – housing, health, welfare, policing and more – to a local level
The full list of the regions and areas covered is:
Cambridge and Peterborough:
Cambridge City Council, East Cambridgeshire District Council, Fenland District Council, Huntingdonshire District Council, Peterborough City Council and South Cambridgeshire District Council
Greater Manchester:
Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan
Liverpool City Region:
Constituent: Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral and Halton
Non-constituent: Warrington, West Lancashire
Tees Valley:
Constituent: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton-On-Tees.
West Midlands:
Constituent: Birmingham, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull and Walsall
Non-constituent: Cannock Chase, Nuneaton and Bedworth, Redditch, Tamworth, Telford and Wrekin
West of England:
Bristol, Bath & North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire.
Sheffield City Region (proposed):
Constituent: Sheffield, Doncaster, Rotherham, Barnsley, Bassetlaw, Chesterfield
Non-constituent: Bolsover, North East Derbyshire, Derbyshire Dales
More details about Metro Mayors and their remits are here
