Devolution: debate and decision

 

On Thursday (9 January), County Council debated Kent’s response to the English Devolution White Paper. Following this, Cabinet took the decision to apply for the Devolution Priority Programme (DPP). The next day, the Leader of Medway Council, Vince Maple and I submitted a letter to government making that application.

Given the importance of the topic, it was right that it was debated in full, and the council meeting was well over four hours. You can find the webcast of both the Council meeting and the Cabinet meeting on the KCC website.

Those parts of the country that are accepted onto the DPP will be on an accelerated track to deliver a Mayoral Strategic Authority, which brings together an elected Mayor with the councils within that area. This would mean a mayoral election in May 2026.

Alongside that will go a programme of local government reorganisation, to take effect in April 2027 or April 2028, replacing Kent County Council, Medway Council and Kent’s twelve District and Borough Councils with a number of unitary councils.

In my opening presentation to the council meeting, I argued that:

• Devolution is coming. The only question is how far we shape it, or let others shape it for us.

• It is, or soon will be, a reality across the country. Others are moving fast.

• And there are great opportunities for us, and for the residents we represent, in devolution. We need to seize them.

Those opportunities include funding streams (and, perhaps more importantly, much greater freedom and discretion over the funding that we are allocated), powers in key areas such as transport, strategic planning, skills, environment and economic development and a national level voice through membership of new bodies such as the Council of Nations and Regions (chaired by the Prime Minister) and the Mayoral Council (chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister).

There is every prospect that, if we do not take up the opportunities of the DPP, many others will and large parts of the country will have access to funding, powers and national voice that is denied to Kent.

Inevitably, and in many ways understandably, a lot of attention has focused on the other element of the motions debated at Council and Cabinet on Thursday: to request from ministers a one year delay to County Council elections scheduled for May. This was, however, something that followed from and is closely linked to the application to join DPP. The minister set out before Christmas that he was ‘minded to’ take the measures necessary to postpone the elections so that areas can deliver both devolution and reorganisation according to the very demanding schedules set out under the Devolution Priority Programme.

The conclusion reflected in the County Council motion and Cabinet decision was that, to ensure that devolution with all its benefits is delivered according to the DPP schedule, the Council would write to ministers to apply for this deferral. This is not an approach that sits easily with me, or any Councillor, but we were persuaded that it was necessary to deliver devolution. Other councils in the same position appear to have come to the same conclusion.

It's also worth noting that there have been a number of previous examples where council elections have been deferred to deliver very wide-ranging changes to council structures and organisation: the most recent examples are those of Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset in 2021.

I wouldn’t normally do this, but I will in a separate post set out the full text of the speech I gave to Council last Thursday, along with some other links: I hope it makes clear why I believe that this is so important for the Council and for the County.