Devolution
Since 2010, the Government has increasingly sought to grant greater powers to local areas– with the passage of the Localism Act, the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners, City Deals and democratically elected mayors in metropolitan areas. The Levelling Up White Paper also notes that the UK is a highly-centralised country compared to the OECD average, with less spent by subnational governments than in other peer countries. The Levelling Up White Paper attributed the cause of geographic disparities in part to low levels of ‘institutional capital’ (defined as local leadership, capability and capacity), in particular local leaders lacking the powers and accountabilities to design and deliver effective policies for tackling local problems and supporting local people.
	There are currently twelve areas which have enhanced devolution in England:
Greater London
Cornwall
Greater Manchester
Liverpool City Region
West Midlands
Tees Valley
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough
West of England
South Yorkshire
North East
North of Tyne
West Yorkshire
	The majority of these areas have been created on the current model of a mayoral combined authority (whereby they have a directly elected Mayor, such as in Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region and the West Midlands). Combined authorities were first created under the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009; mayoral combined authorities were introduced outside of London by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act 2016. The specific powers devolved to each of these areas through secondary legislation are bespoke and were subject to negotiations with central government, but can include greater powers over transport, skills, employment, public health and Police and Crime Commissioner functions.
	The Levelling Up White Paper set a mission to ensure that all areas of England would be offered a devolution deal by the end of 2030 with powers at or approaching the highest level of devolution with a simplified, long-term funding settlement.
	The White Paper also set out the Devolution Framework, indicating what level of powers the Government would devolve to the different types of local government structures, with the fullest extent of powers being granted to a single institution with a directly elected mayor across a functional economic area or whole county geography. The White Paper also announced negotiations on devolution deals with the 13 areas listed below:
Cornwall;
Derbyshire and Derby;
Devon, Plymouth and Torbay;
Durham;
Greater Manchester;
Hull and East Yorkshire;
Leicestershire;
Norfolk;
North East
North Yorkshire and York;
Nottinghamshire and Nottingham;
Suffolk; and
West Midlands
	The Government has concluded and announced devolution deals with 5 areas: York and North Yorkshire; that part of the East Midlands which includes Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham, and Nottinghamshire; Cornwall; Norfolk; and Suffolk. The East Midlands deal is dependent on the enactment of provisions in the Act necessary for the establishment of the proposed East Midlands Mayoral Combined County Authority and Norfolk and Suffolk are planning to use "mayoral title" provisions. All deals are now subject to the statutory processes, including secondary legislation to implement the deals.