A devolution deal for Lancashire looks more certain than ever
With Lancashire seemingly closer than ever to doing a devolution deal with the government – after a minister declared in the Commons this week that a proposal could emerge before the end of November – the Local Democracy Reporting Service takes a look at what devolution would mean for the county, how it would work and why it has taken so long to get here.
For a start, Lancashire is made up of 15 individual councils and since they began to work towards securing a devolution deal back in 2015, they have often disagreed on the shape it should take. Some districts – including Fylde, Wyre and Ribble Valley – even walked away from the process altogether during its early stages.
Moreover, the disunity that had been on display in Lancashire about the issue – and the delays it caused – arguably continued to damage the county’s prospects of a deal even after a tentative agreement between leaders had been reached.That’ll be “local government reorganisation” – in other words, redrawing the council map in Lancashire so that the whole county is covered by just a handful of local authorities rather than the 15 that currently rule the roost.
A recent independent report commissioned to assess the potential impact of devolution in Lancashire estimated that the county’s economy was £1bn a year worse off for not yet having a deal. For that reason, a renewed push down the devolution path was launched in January 2022, when all 15 councils agreed the first detailed blueprint for devolution in the county – but now once again minus an elected mayor – which floated the idea of a staggering £5.6bn transfer of funding to the county’s control.
Hopes were nevertheless high for a deal, because the agreement Lancashire’s leaders had reached about what they wanted to get out of devolution also came, crucially, with a plan for the arrangements by which any new powers and cash would be overseen.
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