Central-local relations under Labour (2024-): emerging themes and issues in English devolution

Abstract

The Labour Government elected in July 2024 has now had six months in office. With publication of the Devolution White Paper on 16 December 2024, this is a good moment to assess the direction of travel in the government’s approach to central-local relations (MCHLG, 2024). To summarise, devolutionary elements are welcome but cautious and incremental, while the (potentially) radical elements around reorganisation are not devolutionary. In this respect, the White Paper marks continuity in the British state tradition. The wide-ranging devolution community of interest recognises progress, whilst expressing disappointment at the lack of ambition (https://citizen-network.org/work/local-england).

That which is to be welcomed in the White Paper reinforces the change of tone towards local government. The further devolution of functions to city-regions, simplified funding arrangements, multi-year settlements and rollout of new central-local partnership bodies (and the localisation of power to amend byelaws) are all devolutionary measures to empower metro-mayors. Moreover, the White Paper is represented by ministers and sympathetic commentators as a floor, not a ceiling, and the most optimistic commentaries witness the beginning of a more radical shift (Studdert, 9.12.2024).

If the White Paper is a floor, the ceiling is neither clear nor near. Endemic features of the centralised British state tradition remain unchallenged and if anything augmented. There is to be no fiscal devolution, though the government is open to the idea of devolving further functions and resources to single settlement authorities. The vision of English local government that emerges is based around the evolution of a bifurcated system of very large Mayoral “strategic” authorities, intended to be growth machines (Molotch, 1976), and enlarged principal authorities charged with public service (mostly social service) delivery. Taken to its conclusion, this new wave of reorganisation will see the abolition of district councils, posing major questions about political and democratic identities and accountabilities. These preoccupations with growth and efficiency seek to amplify and ultimately conclude a pre-existing local state restructuring project, an agenda with arguably centralising overtones expressed in the language of devolutionary ambition.

This paper delves into central government messaging in greater depth, focusing on the period since the General Election of July 2024 and concluding with the Devolution White Paper of

December 2024. It finds familiar ambiguities and dilemmas in the top-line commitment to devolution redolent in some ways of the New Labour approach, reflecting the endemic centralism in English governance (Rae, 2011). These ambiguities point, above all, to the need to make legible rules, traditions and governmentalities that have long defined central-local relations, and have quickly remerged under the current government.

This report is for the Improving Public Funding Allocations to Reduce Geographical Inequalities project funded by the ESRC.

The project brings together a highly experienced interdisciplinary team from the Universities of Birmingham, Bristol, De Montfort, Newcastle, Nottingham, Plymouth and Sheffield, together with the National Centre for Social Research and Metro Dynamics.