Greater Manchester has become the leading example of English devolution. Its leaders have built institutions that work across council boundaries, reshaped local transport and brought public services into closer partnership. Yet stronger growth has not erased deep inequalities, and the city region still lacks the fiscal powers to test the full promise of its approach.

This report examines what Greater Manchester has achieved, where the evidence is less certain and which lessons other places can use. It argues for a new phase of devolution: long-term fiscal agreements for established mayoral authorities, with powers and safeguards suited to each area to provide different tests of what greater local control could achieve.

The question is not whether every place should follow Manchester’s path. It is how national government can give places room to act while protecting the rights, funding and shared responsibilities that must remain national.