The government will introduce a secondment scheme between central government and new “strategic authorities” as part of its devolution plans, the deputy prime minister has said.
Angela Rayner launched the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s English devolution white paper yesterday, which sets out the government’s plan to “widen and deepen devolution across England, providing mayors with unprecedented powers and funding and hardwiring them into the way government works”.
Under the plan, every part of England will be part of a “strategic authority” – which will be groups of councils in the same area working together, such as the 11 current combined authorities.
To support the strategic authorities, the white paper says the government will “provide a comprehensive offer”, including introducing a secondment scheme with central government. This will include “facilitating the placement of civil servants in strategic authority officer roles, including senior positions”.
Announcing the plan in Leeds yesterday, Rayner said: "It’s time for a completely new way of governing. One that unites public and private sectors, at all levels of government, business and unions, and the whole of civil society in a shared purpose.
"Devolution will no longer be agreed by the whim of a minister in Whitehall. It will now be default in our constitution."
In a foreword to the white paper, Rayner said “micromanaging from the centre combined with short-term, sticking-plaster politics has left England’s regions in a doom loop, unable to achieve their potential”.
She said the English devolution plan will “end the hoarding in Whitehall by devolving power and money from central government to those with skin in the game”. This will include providing multi-year settlements, and "moving to a meaningful partnership between central and local government".
Rayner said the plan will give local leaders and communities “the tools they need to deliver growth for their area and raise living standards in every part of the country” and “get councils back on their feet, by providing long-term stability, strengthening standards, streamlining structures and ending the destructive ‘Whitehall knows best’ mindset that micromanages their decisions.”
As part of the plan, the government has said it wants to align public service boundaries, including job centres, police, probation, fire, health services and strategic and local authorities.
Meanwhile, MHCLG ministers have decided to close the Office for Local Government, a body established by the previous Conservative government in July 2023.
Local government minister Jim McMahon, who ordered a review of the body in September, has written to Oflog chief executive Josh Goodman to inform him that he has decided to shut it down. He cited the need to focus resources on the front line, the “urgent priority to fix the local audit system, which was not part of Oflog’s remit” and the body’s “vague and broad remit that risked duplication of functions performed elsewhere” as reasons for the closure.