Devolution support: Insights from strategic authorities

With major implementation milestones set for May 2026, this session provided practical insights from two established combined authorities on governance, funding, and partnership working. 

The session was chaired by Rachel Litherland, principal advisor in the East of England regional team at the LGA. The webinar featured keynote presentations from Kirsty McLean, executive director for public service innovation at Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA) and Jonathan Gibson, interim director of strategy at the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA).

Insights from Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

Speaker: Kirsty McLean, executive director for public service innovation, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority (LCRCA).

Key milestones

Kirsty began by sharing the 10-year journey of LCRCA from inception to becoming an established mayoral combined authority (MCA), outlining the major milestones that shaped the region’s devolution journey:

• 2014: Formation of the combined authority and early negotiations with central government.
   
• May 2017: Election of Metro Mayor Steve Rotherham, marking a turning point in governance and strategic direction.
   
• 2019: Devolution of adult education budgets and launch of an apprenticeship portal to tackle historically low skills levels.
  • 2022: Investment into publicly owned trains and plans to bring buses back under public control.
  • 2023: Rollout of LCR Connect, a digital network to boost connectivity.
     
• 2025: LCRCA designated as an established mayoral strategic authority in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill.
   
• (Projected) April 2026: Integrated financial settlement to be implemented.

Kirsty emphasised the great amount of change that occurred over the first 10 years of the LCRCA’s existence, noting that the establishment of a strategic authority is a long-lasting process.

Governance

Kirsty explained that governance was critical to building legitimacy and trust in the early years of a combined authority:

• In Liverpool City Region, the combined authority cabinet is made up of the mayor and six local authority leaders. This is seen as a valuable collaboration between equal partners.
• Cabinet portfolios for themes such as transport, net zero, and skills, with each member leading on a specific area
• Annual constitutional updates about the powers and responsibilities of the combined authority.
• Scrutiny arrangements to be strengthened following the implementation of integrated financial settlements.
• Currently, voting in the cabinet must be unanimous in certain areas, such as spatial development strategy, whereas Liverpool’s devolution agreement allows for majority voting in other areas. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill would implement a standardised move towards majority voting with mayoral approval on all decisions, which will be reflected in a change to the constitution of the strategic authority.

Kirsty outlined LCRCA’s policy framework, which can be found in more detail in the uploaded slides. 

This framework is split between the different portfolio areas and their underpinning strategies, including on:

• Transport
• Net zero
• Housing and regeneration
• Employment, education and skills
• Health and inequalities
• Innovation
• Business, trade and investment

The policy framework is regularly updated to ensure that all investment decisions are aligned with the strategic authority’s priorities. 

Liverpool designated as an ‘established’ strategic authority

Kirsty highlighted that as an established strategic authority, Liverpool would receive an integrated multi-year settlement, replacing fragmented funding streams and ‘bidding’ mechanisms for funding. This offers flexibility and long-term strategic planning, with accountability for agreed outcomes.

Funding is designated for the following areas, with only limited capacity to move funding between these pillars: 

• Transport and infrastructure
• Environment and climate change
• Housing and planning
• Skills and employment
• Health, well-being and public service reform
• Economic regeneration

Established strategic authorities will have a right to request further powers from government on a yearly basis, as established by the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. 

Kirsty noted that the Bill also provides for the transfer of Police and Crime Commissioner and Fire and Rescue Authority powers to the strategic authority. However, in LCRCA this will be subject to boundary alignment, as the boundaries are currently not coterminous.

Reflections

Kirsty ended by reflecting that structures and governance are critical to strategic authority success, but that one shouldn’t underplay the time invested into building mature and cooperative relationships between councils, local partners and stakeholders. This is the foundation required for enabling the region to make difficult decisions about investment and local priorities. 

Insights from the West Midlands

Speaker: Jonathan Gibson, interim director of strategy, West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA)

Jonathan reflected on WMCA’s experience through three devolution deals since 2015, culminating in the 2023 trailblazer agreement for an integrated funding settlement:

Context and Scale

Jonathan began by providing local context about the WMCA: 

• WMCA covers seven metropolitan councils (Birmingham, Coventry, Solihull, Sandwell, Walsall, Wolverhampton, Dudley) and works with 11 non-constituent authorities, creating a complex governance landscape.
• The region is home to 2.9 million people, making it the second-largest urban area outside London.
• Economic interdependence is strong: 200,000 residents live in one part of the region but work in another, underlining why collaboration matters.

Five key learnings

Jonathan distilled WMCA’s learning into five core principles that any new strategic authority should consider:

Define functional ties and purpose for partnerships

• A functional economic tie: In WMCA there is strong economic interdependence across the region, with people travelling for work from one area to another. This informs how the strategic authority approaches transport, business support, the labour market and other areas.
• Public service ties: The strategic authority helps manage public services which cross council boundaries to the benefit of their residents.

Create a shared regional vision and strategic priorities

• WMCA’s Growth Plan sets out a 10-year ambition across four pillars (people, business, place, story). The plan was co-designed with local authorities and stakeholders and backed by a large evidence review. 
• This was a statement of intent to lift people’s living standards in the West Midlands and provided direction for a range of policy areas.

Take time to understand local authorities’ priorities for their places and the trade-offs that councillors will have to make

• In WMCA, this has informed the development of ‘place portfolios’ for the West Midlands investment prospectus (2025).

Be clear about roles and delivery architecture on a local, regional and national level to avoid duplication. This will help leverage local power, provide a joined-up service, and add value:

• Transport: WMCA runs buses and light rail; councils lead active travel.
• Skills: WMCA controls adult education budgets but works with colleges and councils on delivery.
• Housing: Regional pipeline agreed collectively; retrofit funded by WMCA but delivered locally by local authorities and developers.

Underpin decision-making with political and officer governance which works for the local partnership. In WMCA this is includes:

• Board: Mayor and council leaders for formal decisions.
• Mayor-leaders meetings: Monthly strategic discussions with local council leaders.
• Executive board: Chief executives meet to drive operational alignment.
• Officer groups: Thematic collaboration on issues such as transport, housing, economy.
• Regular peer reviews and health checks ensure the partnership evolves.

Finally, Jonathan emphasised the importance of engaging residents meaningfully and on issues where there is scope for input, avoiding tokenistic consultations. For example, the WMCA runs citizens’ panels on environment and spatial planning, plus targeted forums with community organisations.

Jonathan’s key takeaways

• Invest in relationships and health checks – they’re as important as formal structures. Success depends on collaboration, prioritisation, and trust.
• Devolution is a constant work in progress. Strategic authorities must remain live to opportunities for greater devolution and the changing national political landscape.
• Strategic authorities are at their best when there is clarity on who does what and when they use a multi-layered approach to achieve more collectively. They can unlock national, regional and local synergies, rather than duplicating effort.
• Start with purpose and vision, then build governance and delivery architecture around them.

Q&A Highlights

1. Building Relationships

Q: How do you build trust between strategic authorities and constituent councils?

• Kirsty: Invest time early into understanding each other's local priorities. Relationships evolve as governance matures. Regular officer and political meetings ensure alignment about decision making and impact. Relationships are easier to build when the role of the strategic authority is clearly defined and understood across the area. Evidence-based decision making is critical to building trust and proving the benefit of a strategic authority.
• Jonathan: Strategic authorities don’t work without trust. Shared vision, purpose and common principles are the foundation, which can help resolve differences in priority. The application of these principles in local councils might be different, but they ensure a shared direction of travel.

2. Prioritisation Challenges

Q: How do you handle tough decisions on investment priorities?

• Jonathan: One can start with using conventional cost-benefit analysis or Greenbook decision-making as a guide, but deliberation, conversation and trust matter most. Strategic investments should benefit the whole region, sharing risks and rewards, even if they are located in one area.

Q: How do you make sure that rural areas and their priorities don’t get sidelined by the priorities of urban centres? 

• Kirsty: The policy framework helps ensure this isn't the case, as it is co-designed with leaders from all areas and then guides later decisions. Building strong relationships between the different areas and councils also helps identify unexpected commonality, as well as fostering understanding about the unique needs of specific areas.

3. Majority decision-making

Q: How does majority voting work in practice?

• Kirsty: The LCRCA constitution currently requires unanimous decision making, but the government is moving towards a system of majority voting with the mayor in agreement, to avoid deadlock and streamline governance. In Liverpool, decisions have always been unanimous thanks to early engagement and collaborative planning.

4. Resident voice

Q: How do residents influence decisions across such large geographies?

• Jonathan: In WMCA this has been through targeted panels and forums on issues like environment and spatial planning. Engagement must be meaningful and timed with real opportunities to shape outcomes, rather than tokenistic.

5. Role of the mayor

Q: How does the mayor’s manifesto shape priorities?

• Kirsty: In LCRCA, they translate the manifesto of the elected mayor into a corporate plan agreed by all leaders. 
• Jonathan: The mayor adds real value. They act as a single point of contact for government and investors, unlocking opportunities that benefit the region.

6. Financial pressures & public service reform

Q: With councils facing severe financial challenges, what role can CAs play?

• Kirsty: The strategic authority lobbies for fair funding to government and support innovation on behalf of the whole region. The LCRCA also helps councils shift towards prevention, early intervention and service integration by providing additional capacity, without stepping into the service delivery space.
• Jonathan: In the West Midlands, the strategic authority convenes partners, shares best practice, and explores fiscal devolution tools to bring more resources into the system.

Resources

• The slides, webinar recording, and FAQs will be available on the LGR & Devo Hub. 
• Definitions of terms such as ‘strategic authority’ and ‘combined authority’ can be found under the FAQs and glossary section of the hub.
• Stay tuned for upcoming webinar sessions on LGR and devolution. 
• Sign up for the Devolution and LGR bulletin to stay updated.