Lee Manders is an Intern at Unlock Democracy

The long awaited English Devolution White Paper landed in December. It details the government’s plans to significantly reshape local government across the country.

Devolving power away from Westminster to local communities is the right thing to do, but we are concerned that the government’s plans will not deliver on this.

We asked our supporters for their views on the proposals in the White paper.  We received over 3000 responses.

One of the government’s key proposals is to provide mayors with greater powers over transport, energy and other key areas.

Only 35.5% of our supporters were in favour of expanding the powers mayors can hold.

Our supporters had mixed views on which powers should be expanded. 51.5% of respondents favoured greater mayoral powers over transport but only 17.2% supported increased mayoral powers over tax.

Our supporters showed even less support for the proposal to introduce mayors to every part of England with only 31.1% being in favour of the idea. 

Our supporters main concern is the potential threat that mayors could pose to local democracy -

• “I do not think that a single person making decisions is democracy.”

• “I’m not sure because, although some mayors have done excellent work, they are political appointments so may have a tendency to follow the party line rather than what’s best for the community.”

Even more negative was our supporters' response to plans to replace local councils with mega councils that contain a minimum of 500,000 residents.

Instead of bringing decision-making closer to communities, these mega-councils will push power even further away from the people.

Only 14.8% of our supporters thought that 500,000 residents was an appropriate number for local councils to have. 

Many of our supporters hold the view that this size will lead to councillors being out of touch with local residents, particularly in rural areas -

• “It is far too big. It removes local knowledge and local interests. Councillors will become full time professionals, again beholden to their central party management. - not the local community.”

• “It will be extremely difficult for elected councillors to know their “constituents”!”

• “A minimum size of half a million people would mean vast areas unable to reflect the unique nature of rural areas.”

One of our main issues with these proposals is that they will allow ministers to impose devolution arrangements on local councils.

Our supporters agree, only 20.1% thought it would be appropriate for the government to impose devolutionary arrangements on areas where local leaders are unable to agree on a way forward.

While there are some good intentions in the White Paper, these proposals are unfortunately still top down measures from central government.

Local communities must be able to have a proper say in how they govern and develop, rather than being forced into using one-size-fits all systems developed by Westminster.

We are now engaging with Councillors to get their views on the government’s plans for devolution.