Report

Completing the map

This report from UK think tank the Institute for Government looks at how the government can extend devolution to the whole of England.

After a decade of devolution, a dozen English regions are now led by mayors who, in partnership with local government, control key economic powers and budgets. But devolution has unfolded unevenly and the new Labour government rightly states an ambition to ‘complete the map’ of devolution.

Despite notable advances in the past decade, large swathes of England – including cities such as Stoke, Southampton, Hull and Leicester, and almost all non-metropolitan areas – are still governed almost wholly by Whitehall. Almost 30 million people, or around half the population, live in places with no devolved settlement.

Labour has come to power committed to widening devolution. Local leaders in ‘devolution deserts’ have been invited to submit proposals for how they will work with neighbouring areas to take on devolved powers. Ministers now face a set of tricky decisions about what the geography of new devolution arrangements should be and which places to prioritise.

This report sets out our analysis of how the government should take these decisions and what the options are in each part of England. It concludes that the big strategic choice facing ministers is between smaller, simpler, county-based deals (Option 1) and larger regional arrangements that offer greater potential for ambitious growth strategies (Option 2).