We need to think about Mayors!

Extensive analysis of existing Mayoral Authorities by Owl shows Devon is qualified to get its own Mayoral devolution.

As we wait to get an inkling of what economic policies might feature in “Burnhamism”, we are getting strong signals that he favours increasing devolved powers to regions. And this almost certainly means to Mayoral Authorities. 

Local leaders will be under pressure to accelerate their plans to create these in order to qualify for devolved funding as early as possible.

This post considers how Devon fits within the existing pattern of Strategic Mayoralties.

Would we need to combine with others? 

Not necessarily.

The central ideas behind the ill fated Local Enterprise Partnerships were based on economic rather than geographic groupings and they were to be business [read developer] led. Partnerships between Devon and Cornwall, and between Devon, Somerset and Dorset were explored in the scramble to create these partnerships in the South West. Their progress and ultimate failure is extensively reported in the Watch. They were unaccountable and no serious money was devolved.

The latest “regional strategic grouping” to be reported by Owl [see here] concerns the “Great South West Partnership.” This, once again, is a partnership between business and councils.

The problem is to find a balance between groupings big enough to consider, and implement, regional strategy yet small enough to be locally accountable. 

Strategic mayoral authorities need to sit above two more lower level combined authorities.

A potential rapid route to achieve this within Devon has already been explored and mapped out through the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority (DTCCA). This is seen as a flexible way to make progress in circumstances where Plymouth continues to pursue its own pathway.

Owl’s analysis shows that, IN COMPARISON with all the 14 existing combined Mayoral Authorities, there is no pressing case to create an authority extending beyond Devon’s boundary. DEVON IS BIG ENOUGH ALONE TO BE GIVEN ITS OWN POWER.

The table at the bottom of this post lists all 14 existing authorities, their size in terms of both population and area, who the Mayors are, their political affiliations and their route to power. The last line in the table records the data for Devon including Plymouth and Torbay for comparative purposes.

Population.

There are six mayoral authorities with populations smaller than Devon’s. The smallest is Tees Valley with a population of 713K . The combined authority of Tees Valley encompasses five local council areas: Darlington, Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Redcar and Cleveland, and Stockton-on-Tees. It has a population more than two and a half times bigger than Plymouth.

On a rational basis Plymouth will struggle to succeed in “going it alone”. Banking on its Labour affiliations may not carry weight with “collegiate” Burnham.

Area

There are only three Mayoral Authorities larger in area than Devon: Greater Lincolnshire; North East, and York and North Yorkshire. 

What existing Strategic Mayoral Authority most closely resembles Devon?

This looks like Greater Lincolnshire which is very similar in respect to population and area. This oversees the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, divided into Lincolnshire county council and the unitary areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire.

Mayoral party affiliations and Background

Of the 14 mayors: 10 are Labour; 2 Conservative and 2 Reform. Half were former MP’s in their areas, two were councillors and one was  a former Police and Crime Commissioner.

Tabulation of Strategic Mayoralties

Mayoralty	Population (m)	Area Sq Miles	Mayor	Party	Background
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough	0.9	1,309	Paul Bristow	Con	Former MP
East Midlands	2.2	1,850	Claire Ward	Lab	Former MP
Greater Lincolnshire	1.1	2,687	Dame Andrea Jenkyns	Reform	Former Con MP
Greater Manchester	3.0	493	[Andy Burnham} By election pending	Lab	Former MP
Hull and East Yorkshire	0.6	957	Luke Campbell	Reform	Boxer
Liverpool City Region	1.6	349	Steve Rotheram	Lab	Former MP
Greater London Authority	9.0	610	Sir Sadiq Khan	Lab	Former MP
North East	2.0	3,000	Kim McGuinness	Lab	Former PCC
South Yorkshire	1.4	1,345	Oliver Coppard	Lab	Spad
Tees Valley	0.7	307	Lord (Ben) Houchen	Con	Cllr
West Midlands	4.3	348	Richard Parker	Lab	Pwc Consultant
West of England	1.1	368	Helen Godwin	Lab	Bristol Cllr
West Yorkshire	2.4	783	Tracy Brabin	Lab	Former MP
York and North Yorkshire	0.8	3,208	David Skaith	Lab	Businessman
DEVON	1.3	2,590	N/A	N/A	N/A