The government’s White Paper on devolution within England proposes unitary local authorities with a minimum population of 500,000, as discussed in part one of this article. The other significant structural proposal is for Mayoral Strategic Authorities (or Combined Authorities) to be rolled out across all of England over time. The Paper suggests a minimum population of 1.5 million for MSAs where practicable.

This proposal is a dog’s dinner at many levels. Where to begin? Nationally, we will continue to see Greater London as a single authority of nearly 10 million people whilst most of non-metropolitan England will likely see a multitude of smaller MSAs, perpetuating the imbalance set about by the abandonment of regionalisation plans in 2004, a few years after the creation of the Greater London Authority.

Labour and Conservatives aren’t interested in decentralisation, only faux-devolution and obfuscation of accountability. Mayors will operate on tax precepts that are miniscule compared to their grants from Westminster. The White Paper is full of nonsense jargon such as “Integrated Settlements”, “local growth allocations” and “consolidated funding pots”. This is not a recipe for good democratic government.

Liberal Democrat policy, on the other hand, is empowering, rational, far-reaching and forward-looking. We call for powerful regions with parliamentary government: proper, pluralistic democracy with full accountability. Legislative decentralisation will be accompanied by fiscal decentralisation: taxation will move away from Westminster and directly to the regions. That is real devolution.

Our call for regionalisation of England is tied to our policy for a federal UK because the two issues are somewhat interdependent. Similarly, the structure of local government is tied somewhat to the nature of the regions or sub-regions that contain them. Both large-scale regional government and unitary local councils are good ideas in their own right, but only if done properly. Sadly, the current government are implementing neither well.

I have always favoured unitary authorities – provided they are the right unitaries, of course. It is disheartening, though unsurprising, to see Labour reforming English local government in a way that undermines a structure I think should be embraced. Equally disheartening, for me, is the response from some Liberal Democrats.

Alongside the call for unitary authorities, the government’s devolution proposals also include Mayoral Strategic Authorities (or Combined Authorities), ultimately encompassing all of England, which I will cover in more detail in part two of this article.

Replacing two-tier local government with unitaries streamlines governance. Why anyone would want Highways and Planning separated across tiers of local government to begin with? Of course, whilst some powers will move downwards from abolished county councils, others shift upwards from the former districts to the unitaries, which may be larger in order to function with increased powers. This is a trade-off, but one upside to larger unitaries is to allow room for greater power at the lowest level – the Parish Councils – and aligns with Liberal Democrat policy on localism.

When the government’s White Paper declared that unitaries should in most case serve at least 500,000 people, there was a collective intake of breath from many.

Here in South Cambs, opinion is divided. Some who favour unitaries support a combined South Cambs District plus City of Cambridge (population c.300,000), balancing rural and urban interests, whereas others would add East Cambs (pop. 90,000) to that too. For me, it is important any solution works within the context of the wider area: no cherry-picking of geography or first-come-first-served libertarianism. Either way, I have yet to encounter anyone who wants only a single authority for the whole of Cambridgeshire.

With that in mind, I was saddened to read that, recently, five Oxfordshire Liberal Democrat MPs wrote to Angela Rayner, asking for a single unitary council for Oxfordshire and for a Combined Authority for Bucks, Oxon and Berks:

.@LibDemsOxon MPs wrote to @AngelaRayner backing a ‘one Oxfordshire approach’ with a Combined Authority including Berkshire, Oxfordshire, and Buckinghamshire and an all-Oxfordshire Unitary.

We should build on long-standing structures, not tear up existing boundaries. pic.twitter.com/pNEid4PuEZ

— Layla Moran 🔶🕊️ (@LaylaMoran) January 30, 2025