Northamptonshire misses out on government's fast-track devolution programme
Northamptonshire has missed out on being part of the Government's fast-track devolution programme, after disagreements between local councils on where the combined authority boundaries should be.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner told the House of Commons today (February 5) the six regions that had made it on the priority programme, which will likely see Mayoral elections come into effect in May 2026.
A bid for a new South Midlands Authority (SMA), which could have included West Northamptonshire, North Northamptonshire, Central Bedfordshire, Luton, Bedford and Milton Keynes, was placed but did not feature in the Minister's speech.
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Both West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) and North Northamptonshire Council (NNC) have now announced that they will continue to work with partners in the region to explore a devolution bid.
Angela Rayner said: "Since I launched the devolution white paper I've been overwhelmed by the excitement of communities wanting to join the devolution revolution.
"These places will get a fast-track to drive real change in their area. The outcome is simple, it's a plan for putting more money in people's pockets, quicker, better, cheaper transport designed with local people in mind, and putting politics back in the service of working people."
The six regions placed on the priority programme are Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Greater Essex, Hampshire and Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex and Brighton.
In January, in an eleventh-hour decision, Luton, Milton Keynes and Bedford councils joined together to submit their own expression of interest for a smaller group, excluding Northamptonshire from their plans altogether. Both the SMA and Bedford, Central Bedfordshire, Luton and Milton Keynes (BLMK) deals were not successful in the first tranche.
Leader of WNC, Cllr Adam Brown said: "Our position is very clear now, we'll be going back to the other authorities within the South Midlands and asking them to come together as a six, which is what we initially asked to do.
"In our discussions with ministers there still seems to be a strong preference from government to get together as a South Midlands area. We respect that the leaders in Milton Keynes and Luton especially wanted to pursue an alternative, but I think now is the time to be pragmatic and move forward on a South Midlands geography which is really well established."
He said that the reasons for the fast-track programme refusal were "anticipated", including the non-unanimous proposals and the potential to leave Northamptonshire as a 'devolution island' if it was not included.
He added: "The people who did really want to pursue that BLMK deal and were hopeful of getting it over the line today, it's probably a bit too soon to already start looking at other opportunities. We'll allow the dust to settle. We do have a little bit more time now so we don't have to rush things."
Jason Smithers, leader of NNC, told the LDRS that the county has "missed an opportunity" on the devolution priority programme, but that the government's door is "still open".
"If you look at the government white paper there's some clear outlines of what would make the perfect combined authority or mayoral authority and there's some pretty simple figures in there are population size and so on. As a South Midlands Authority involving six councils, we meet all of the government's requests.
"We'll regroup and see where we go from here. Definitely, I will still be working towards a devolution deal with government- I'd rather have us manage that deal than have something done to us.
"This is a very exciting time to be working collaboratively with neighbouring unitary councils and the move towards devolution fits perfectly with our BIG 50 aspirations. I will put the residents of North Northamptonshire first and that will be paramount in my mind whenever we're looking to do any deal."
Both leaders said that there were no solid time scales for progressing the deal, but that having a May 2027 mayoral election was not "out of the question".
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