English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026

Powers were devolved to varying degrees to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by Tony Blair's Labour government in the late 1990s through the establishment of the Scottish Parliament, the Welsh Parliament and the Northern Ireland Assembly. A devolved legislature and government was not created for England, which remained under the full jurisdiction of the United Kingdom parliament and government based in Westminster. A strategic local authority for Greater London, known as the Greater London Authority (GLA), was established in 2000. Plans for elected regional assemblies in the eight English regions outside Greater London were abandoned following an unsuccessful referendum held in the North East region in 2004. Instead, sub-regional combined authorities were gradually established after the Conservatives came to power in 2010, starting in 2011, under the terms of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009 and Localism Act 2011. Initially, combined authorities were led by boards of local authority leaders. The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016 allowed for the creation of directly elected mayors to lead combined authorities. Further competencies were granted to combined authorities by the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. By May 2024, eleven combined authorities had been established in England, with additional proposals in development. Combined authority leaders and the mayor of London regularly meet UK government ministers through the Mayoral Council for England and the Council of the Nations and Regions, which were established in October 2024. In 2023, the Labour Party under Keir Starmer pledged to introduce a "Take Back Control Bill" in its first term if it returned to power, which would devolve more powers to regional and local authorities in England on issues such as housing, transport, employment support, energy and childcare. Starmer pledged that this bill would be detailed in Labour's first King's Speech, and after its victory in the 2024 general election, plans by the Labour government for this bill, now officially named the English Devolution Bill, were outlined in the King's Speech at the State Opening of Parliament in July 2024. ==White paper==

An English Devolution white paper was published on 16 December 2024, outlining key provisions expected in the English Devolution Bill. Proposals • Designation of the Greater London Authority and combined authorities as "strategic authorities". • Strategic authorities to be given competencies over transport and local infrastructure; skills and employment support; housing and strategic planning; economic development and regeneration; environment and climate change; health, wellbeing and public service reform; and public safety. • Police and fire commissioner powers to be granted to mayors where police and fire boundaries align with strategic authority boundaries. • Structural changes to local government in England to move two-tier areas to a unitary structure. Structural changes to local government Jim McMahon, Minister for Local Government and English Devolution, wrote to the following two-tier authorities in February 2025 to set out a timetable for reorganisation proposals to be submitted: an interim plan by 21 March 2025 and a full proposal by 28 November 2025. The letters included guidance that proposals should seek to establish one or more single-tier authorities per area, with a "sensible geography which will help to increase housing supply and meet local needs" and with a rough population of 500,000 or more, including evidence of local engagement activity. • Cambridgeshire and Peterborough • Derbyshire and Derby • Devon, Plymouth and Torbay • East Sussex and Brighton • Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock • Gloucestershire • Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton • Hertfordshire • Kent and Medway • Lancashire, Blackburn and Blackpool • Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland • Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire • Norfolk • Nottinghamshire and Nottingham • Oxfordshire • Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent • Suffolk • Surrey • Warwickshire • West Sussex • Worcestershire Combined areas Devolution is expanding to newly created combined authorities. • Devon and Torbay • Greater Lincolnshire • Hull and East Yorkshire • Lancashire Several were accepted onto the Devolution Priority Programme, which also included local government reorganisation and delayed elections: • Cumbria • Cheshire and Warrington • Norfolk and Suffolk • Greater Essex • Sussex and Brighton • Hampshire and Solent == Provisions ==

The Bill was introduced on 10 July 2025 by Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government. It was also renamed, taking on the title of English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. According to The Observer, the legislation is 'steeped in the ideology of the Co-operative Party.' As introduced • Section 16 prevents mayors from having dual mandate, preventing them from simultaneously being a member of the House of Commons, Senedd Cymru (Welsh Parliament), Scottish Parliament, or the Northern Ireland Assembly. • Schedule 2 amends voting procedures for mayoral combined authorities, giving mayors an additional vote in the event of a tie for spatial development strategies. • Schedule 3 updates commissioner appointment procedures regarding disqualification. • Schedule 4 extends the general power of competence to combined authorities. • Schedule 5 grants local authorities more powers to regulate and license micromobility vehicles. • Schedule 9 provides that combined authorities are to be the sole local transport authority for their area. • Schedule 25 requires local authorities in England to move from a committee system to a leader and cabinet system, and prevents local authorities from adopting mayor and cabinet systems whilst allowing authorities with pre-existing mayoralties to continue. • Schedule 26 re-introduces the supplementary vote to police and crime commissioner elections and mayoral elections, which had been made first-past-the-post by the Elections Act 2022. The government intends to abolish police and crime commissioners by 2028. ==References==