Leader’s Corner
7 February 2025 - Fast track devolution announced
This week we had some great news! The joint application of Southampton, Hampshire, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight councils into the fast-track devolution programme has been accepted by the Government. This is important because it means that money and decisions about our area, that are currently made by the national Government will be made at a regional level.
Being accepted into the programme is a major step forward. We can now proceed at pace with setting up the new Mayoral Strategic Authority for the region with elections for the new mayor planned to be held in May 2026.
The new Mayoral Strategic Authority will cover the four councils. The mayor will lead a Cabinet of the Leaders of each local authority with decisions only being implemented if the majority of the Cabinet agree.
The Government plans to launch a public consultation on proposals for Mayoral Strategic Authorities to seek local residents’ views. We will keep you updated on the plans for that.
I strongly believe that moving decision making and funding away from central Government to a regional mayor will bring enormous benefits for the residents of Southampton and the wider region. It will mean decisions about things that matter to us all, like our transport network, major infrastructure investment, and employment support programmes will be made locally, with local people in mind.
It will also bring millions in additional funding to improve the lives of local people and drive economic growth, putting more money in people’s pockets, help progress towards net zero, and reduce inequality across the city.
Aside from the new Mayoral Strategic Authorities, the Government is also looking at ending the current two-tier system of counties and district councils in some areas by creating unitary councils across the whole country with populations of around 500,000. We will be working with neighbouring local authorities to develop proposals for our area over the coming months.
You may have heard that some local elections due to be held in May 2025 have been cancelled. This only applies to Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, there were no local elections due to take place in Southampton this year. For answers to the many questions that you may have about the process, please go to Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation.