HHRA 31 December 2024
English Devolution White Paper
Should you need some new reading matter, you may wish to dip into the government white paper about 'English Devolution'. As mentioned above, we shall ask Cllr Martin to speak about it when he meets us.
HHRA 1 January 2025
In our Update yesterday, we provided the link to the government white paper on English Devolution.
We have now seen the papers for an extraordinary meeting of HCC full council on 9 January, setting out the following proposals:
The County Council is committed to the creation of a Combined Authority across the wider region incorporating Isle of Wight Council, Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council, in accordance with the expression of interest submitted to the Deputy Prime Minister on 30 August 2024.
The County Council will request to be included in the Devolution Priority Programme (DPP) as a fast track to delivering devolution for our area.
As a consequence of joining the Devolution Priority Programme the County Council is committed to delivering Local Government Reorganisation across our area. Local Government Reorganisation proposals will be submitted to Government by Autumn 2025.
As a consequence of joining the Devolution Priority Programme the County Council will request to Government a 12 month postponement of the County Council elections due to take place in May 2025 to provide a necessary stable platform on which devolution proposals can progress at pace in 2025 to ensure the benefits of devolution for the area are realised as quickly as possible.
In the event that you wish to read the report in more detail, the link is below (you may need to copy and paste into your web browser). Should you wish to pass your views to our county councillor, do email her at pal.hayre@hants.gov.uk. The meeting will be video streamed.
Having looked at the websites of Portsmouth and Southampton city councils and the IoW council, it is apparent that they are a little less than wholeheartedly enthusiastic about the Hampshire proposals, having previously hoped for a smaller 'Solent' variation on the theme, but they appear likely to feel they have to suppport the 'combined authority across the wider region' proposed by Hampshire as there may not be an alternative; like Hampshire, they are positive about the prospects for 'devolution' from central government.
And yes, those with a long memory may well be reminded of the period 1974 - 1997......
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