Brighton and Hove City Council has submitted a letter expressing interest in a “devolution” deal, also signed by the leaders of the seven district councils in West Sussex.
The letter was sent in response to an invitation from the government which wants to create new combined councils run by directly elected “metro mayors” like Sadiq Khan in London or Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester.
The expression of interest was signed by leaders serving an area with a population of more than 1.1 million people although it was not signed by the leader of Conservative-controlled West Sussex County Council.
The letter was sent by the leaders of Brighton and Hove City Council, Adur District Council, Arun District Council, Chichester District Council, Crawley Borough Council, Horsham District Council, Mid Sussex District Council and Worthing Borough Council.
All of the leaders are Labour or Liberal Democrat councillors and most already work together as part of the Greater Brighton Economic Board.
The expression of interest echoes a proposal in a recent report by the Institute for Government. The think-tank’s board includes two former Labour government ministers.
It published a report last week, looking at ways to spread “devolution”. The report said that one option locally was for Brighton and Hove to join forces with councils in either East Sussex or West Sussex.
Another would be for a combined authority covering the whole of historic Sussex.
The report said: “There is a strong case to be bold and to prioritise the creation of larger-scale regional mayoral devolution arrangements.
“A devolution settlement covering East Sussex, West Sussex and Brighton and Hove would deliver a large-scale deal that aligns with historic boundaries and avoids Brighton having to choose whether to look east or west.”
The report recommends setting up a Sussex-wide council to be led by a directly elected mayor. This would cover an area with a population of more than 1.7 million.
East Sussex County Council is led by the Conservatives although they do not have a majority. None of the five district councils in East Sussex is run by the Conservatives any more, with Green leaders at Hastings, Lewes and Wealden. The Liberal Democrats have a majority in Eastbourne and Rother is run by an Independent at the helm of a coalition.
Brighton and Hove City Council leader Bella Sankey said: “Sussex has so much potential.
“We’re proudly home to a beautiful coastline and national park, three leading universities, a Premier League football team, international gateways including the UK’s second largest airport in Gatwick and the ports of Shoreham and Newhaven.
“We have so much to offer but have not yet reached our potential.”
Councillor Sankey added: “There’s extensive economic and business experience across all our local authority boundaries so we are well-placed to be involved in discussions about deeper collaboration through devolution.
“We’ve started the journey of building stronger partnerships in Sussex and are open to continuing these conversations and working together to find the right devolution geography that will work for all our residents.
“This is an exciting time. Devolution has the potential to unlock powers and funding that would drive economic growth and ensure that decisions are made closer to the local people, communities and businesses they affect.
“This is a very early stage in the process and we look forward to building further positive collaboration with partners across Sussex as further details from government emerge.”
The council said: “Overall, Sussex is an economically prosperous county, but there are significant regional disparities, with pockets of deprivation and unmet potential.
“Devolution has the potential to turn these challenges into opportunities and support collaboration to drive economic and social benefits.
“Engagement will continue with councils in Sussex and will include key strategic partners and businesses.
“Residents, businesses and local organisations will be involved at the earliest opportunity to inform and shape the process.”
The Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is expected to set out the next steps and to publish a government bill – or draft law – later this year.
Why would East/West Sussex wish to ? – we are a bit of a financial liability are we not ?
This does NOT change any of the existing councils in the area.
They will all continue to exist performoing their own specific funcions and managing their own budgets with their own elected councillors
For now.
It’s an interesting turn of events. Labour locally have always been against a regional mayor because generally it was guaranteed to be Conservative. However with changing demographics and recent elections, (plus excluding East Sussex), that is no longer a given.
With Labour nosediving in the polls nationally though, and their reputation damaged here after just a year since they took over control of the council (again – despite them pretending they haven’t controlled it before in recent years) it does feel like people are finally cottoning on to the fact that Labour say lots in opposition and blame others, but when in power do sharp u-turns and are quite prepared to screw people over by policies like the Winter Fuel Allowance, and closer to home, closure of schools and not actively opposing cuts to local gov funding which will hurt us all in the city.
The demographics changed in July just because people couldn’t stand Tories after all the lies and sleaze. We’re seeing exactly the same with Labour, so it would be an incredibly arrogant (and possibly foolhardy) move if Labour thing they’ve got this – they haven’t.
Personally I think they’ve done a much better job than the previous lot. Equally if I’m working and paying tax and struggling, why would pensioners sat in paid off £1million houses with final salary pensions need the winder fuel allowance?
Another layer of bureaucracy to create a buffer between the real local problems and issues from the decision makers. Remove another access to accountability!
will add to everyone’s council tax, already some of the highest in the country – who cares on stuff like this apart from deluded self important politicians / councilors.
I wonder if Ms Sankey is eyeing up the mayoral post?
No no no! B&H Council is riddled with incompetence. We do not want them polluting West Sussex thank you very much! I was so relieved when I moved to Adur & Worthing Council. After suffering regular problems with rubbish collection in B&H, in 8 years of living in Adur & Worthing, every week has been reliable. And let’s not even talk about on-street parking….
NOTHING in this proposal will mean the existing councils ceasing to exist or any change in their functions.
Sorry that seems unlikely.
If nothing would change – why make this move?
As aresident of East Sussex, my words to Brighton: Mits off. Fix your own mess before trying to foist it on us and other councils.
Because in every other part of the county whee there is a regional / metro mayor there has been ZERO changes to the existing councils in the area.
The 5 Unitary Councils in the Tees Valley are still there (I should know my cousin is a member of one of them). Ben Houchen the Metro Mayor for the Tees Valleyhas no influence over how they operate or their budgets,
Ditto Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester has no powers over the 10 councils in the area (including Manchester City Council)
Well Chris, we may actually get some joined up thinking with our public transport like London or Manchester, that doesn’t sound like such a bad thing
Left leaning administrations tend to favour “big state” and more state control. Individual councils may still operate as at present but you can be fairly certain that an extra (probably inefficient) layer would be created to oversee the entire thing. Would this extra layer have any benefits to the taxpayer? Will the advantages be properly audited – doubtful. Who pays for this extra layer – yes, the taxpayer.
This could lead to more regional decision-making power and funding, enabling better control over local infrastructure, housing, and transport. Benefits could include economies of scale, improved efficiency, and stronger collective bargaining power.
However, concerns about added bureaucracy, increased council tax, and fears of diminishing local accountability are very reasonable to have as well, especially as the deal wouldn’t dissolve existing councils but create a regional authority above them.
I don’t have a clear standpoint on this. However, perhaps, as a theoretical exercise, if this were to go ahead, there is a strong need for a regional-level auditing or scrutiny board to ensure local governance remains responsive to the public. With expanded powers and pooled resources, regional oversight becomes crucial to maintaining trust and preventing mismanagement across multiple councils.
“but create a regional authority above them.”
But whilst there may be a regional grouping it would have ZERO control over any other council in the area
The regional mayor and combined authority (whose members would be the leader of each of the councils) would only be able to operate under it’s own set of functions.
This Mayor isn’t telling councils to collect the bins only every 3 weeks or car parking should be free and and which library and schools need to close. They won’t be deciding on planning applications either.
I guess it’s a bit like a conglomerate then? Some shared goals, but each entity is separate within? I need to do a bit more reading up.
NO mandate No authority.
If the ‘ political elite ‘ want this then ask us the voters
What are the benefits to the residents in these areas, if any? Any promise they make, must be a written guarantee, that they must keep to, Remember Sir Keir Starmer had pledged to cut household energy bills by £400 if Labour won the general election. but only weeks after the election, energy bills are on the way up!
Fran doesn’t understand the world economy clearly. Nor does she listen to the TV properly as I don’t remember anyone saying they would cut energy bills at the click of a finger after election day. There was something about GB energy which after 5 years would probably lower power bills, but it’s been about 3 months so far…
Dingo, you are making point for me. All parties make vague promises at elections for the distant future, but they could have done something now, about the latest price increase. Wholesale energy prices are not much different to what they were years ago, so why do we have the highest energy bills in the world? The energy regulators allow the price rises and the government could have done something about that. So why didn’t they?
Give labour a chance. Tories had there ten years and we are poor after cuts and incompetence.
If this is anything like the yearly increase in funding of Sussex Police by all in Sussex but only Brighton seeing any benefit then I’m not interested. Katy Bourne and her bloated team costs far more than the previous police authority and I don’t see a new Mayor and their team being any different.
Brighton is in the ceremonial county of East Sussex. It shares many services with East Sussex including Fire service. It has never, historically, shared anything with Weat Sussex so seems odd to merge with councils in that county.