Devolution Cannot Wait

1^st October 2025

Local Leaders Call for Urgency, Partnership and Long-Term Vision

At this week’s Labour Party Conference, a packed fringe event hosted by ResPublica, and sponsored by Key Cities, brought together senior voices from central and local government to debate the future of devolution.

The message from the panel was blunt: Britain is still one of the most centralised countries in the Western world, and unless we learn to let go of power, we will never deliver the change people so desperately need.

Sarah Calkin, editor of LGC, opened by noting that while England has witnessed a decade of asymmetric and incremental progress—from Devo Manc in 2014 to county deals—the agenda has often stalled without clear support from the centre. Now, she argued, momentum is back, with devolution high on the new government’s priority list.

Miatta Fahnbulleh MP, the new Devolution Minister, set the tone by framing devolution as essential to the government’s mission. After 15 years of falling living standards, rising costs, and strained public services, she said people feel a “visceral need for change.” To deliver, power must shift from Whitehall to communities: “We cannot succeed without giving local leaders the tools to rebuild services and restore trust.” But her acknowledgement also raises the question: what is Whitehall prepared to give up? The answer must be a lot more than it has so far.

Local leaders like Steve Rotheram, Mayor of Liverpool City Region, and Cllr. Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, know what’s at stake. They have seen how devolved powers can deliver growth. Yet they also see the limits. Without integrated financial settlements, greater fiscal freedom, without long-term planning, without the ability to shape housing, transport, and skills, local leaders are left managing decline rather than engineering renewal.

Mayor Steve Rotheram (Liverpool City Region) pointed to tangible successes—from raising skill levels to investment-led growth in knowledge-based industries like AI. But he warned of the need to promote the benefits of devolution to the local electorate, noting the stark contrast with countries like Germany where federal states plan infrastructure for decades, ensuring stability, efficiency, and trust. The mayor suggested that with comparable funding and governance we can forge multiple “superpower” economies at the sub-national level.

Cllr. Bev Craig (Leader, Manchester City Council) reminded the room that local government has always been at its strongest when it can plan confidently for the long term, not lurch from one-year settlements to the next. While she welcomed Labour’s renewed commitment to devolving power, her warning was clear: if Britain wants to behave like a “grown-up country,” it must adopt the habits of one—stable, long-term planning, a proper infrastructure strategy, and investment that lasts beyond electoral cycles. For Craig, devolution is not a quick fix but a chance to reset the way the state works. The danger, she argued, is that immediate pressures—financial crises in councils, short-term funding gaps—could distract from that bigger prize. Her call was for stability, partnership, and vision: a devolution settlement that allows local leaders to think in decades, not months, and to build prosperity and services that endure.

Cllr. Louise Gittins (Leader, Cheshire West & Chester Council and Chair, Local Government Association), emphasised the unglamorous but essential foundations of devolution: capacity and resources. She emphasised how councils are the bedrock of local services, and without stable funding, combined authorities and mayoral deals will simply crumble. Gittins was clear that empowerment cannot mean responsibility without means; it has to mean genuine support for the institutions closest to people’s lives. Her contribution grounded the discussion in reality: devolution can unlock growth and reform, but only if councils are strong enough to deliver the basics.

Cllr. John Merry (Deputy Mayor, Salford and Chair, Key Cities), focussed squarely on the issue of trust. Britain, he argued, is one of the most centralised countries in Europe, and local leaders are still too often treated as junior partners by central government. That has to change. Devolution is not a technical adjustment but a cultural shift: a new relationship between the state and the people who live in it. For Merry, genuine partnership means recognition that cities and councils are not supplicants but co-authors of national renewal. Without that, he suggested, the devolution agenda will be yet another promise unfulfilled.

John Merry also made the case that smaller and mid-sized cities must not be overlooked in the government’s devolution drive. Too often, he argued, the national debate has focused on the “big beasts”—London, Manchester, Birmingham—while places like Sunderland, Salford, or Peterborough are treated as peripheral. Yet it is in these mid-sized cities that much of Britain’s future prosperity will be decided. They are large enough to anchor local economies, but close enough to their communities to deliver growth that feels tangible and inclusive. For Merry, the role of smaller cities is not simply to follow the lead of the largest combined authorities but to shape devolution in their own right—bringing scale, innovation, and connectivity to regional networks. He stressed that local government reform must reflect this diversity, giving smaller cities the tools to lead on skills, housing, and regeneration, and ensuring that devolution empowers the full map of urban Britain, not just its largest dots.

Across the panel, three themes stood out:

• Urgency: Public impatience for change is real, and visible delivery is critical.
• Partnership: Local government must be trusted as an equal partner to central government.
• Long-term vision: Devolution is a “long game,” but one that can reset economic growth and rebuild public services if given stability and ambition.

The session concluded with agreement that the prize is significant. A genuine shift of power could not only reshape governance but also rebuild public confidence in politics. As Calkin summed up: “Devolution may take time, but the rewards—for communities, cities, and the country as a whole—are worth the effort.”