Dave Thomas: What devolution could mean for Torbay

You may have seen several media articles over the past week about what the English Devolution White Paper means for local authorities across the country.

The government released this 118-page paper on December 16. Over the Christmas and New Year period, I, councillors, and council officers have spent a lot of time trawling through it. We have also attended government webinars to understand the impact this will have on Torbay. I feel this is one of the most important documents released by the government in over half a century. It is defining the way future local government will look and work. 

There are two parts to this paper, which means two reorganisations. The devolution element is about having a strategic, larger, and wider combined authority. The government is expecting the size of these new strategic areas to be more than 1.5 million residents. They are also expecting there to be an elected mayor at the helm.

The second part is about local government reorganisation. The government is saying that nationally, the country will be governed by unitary councils, expected to be a size of no less than 500,000 population. There will no longer be county councils, district councils, or small unitary authorities. Town and Parish Councils will stay. Torbay currently has a population of around 140,000, which the government is saying is too small. 

These changes will bring new leadership structures along with more powers handed down from the government to the strategic Combined Authority. They say this will make decision-makers directly accountable to local people.

There will be new powers that currently sit with national government that will be handed down locally. They include things like retaining tax that is collected locally for it to be spent at a local level. Bringing back regional development agencies along with regional investment funds. Have more powers around local housing policies, setting our own affordable housing targets. More control over transport, including rail and buses, and deciding what investment is put in on our roads. 

I want to reiterate that this is going to happen, and we need to respond. We need to step up, lead, and make sure what is put forward is right for you, our residents, our businesses, and our place. 

At our Cabinet meeting last week, we discussed this paper and put forward our recommendations for the next steps. You can read this paper on our website. 

We confirmed our position that we support a mayoral strategic authority comprising Torbay, Cornwall, and Devon if agreement can be reached by all authorities. This meets the 1.5 million threshold of residents. Our two counties have a lot in common, like tourism, farming, and maritime trade. Discussions have been taking place with these authorities; however, at this current time, no agreement has been made. 

We do not want to simply draw a series of lines on a map to dictate what the new unitary authorities will look like. We want to look at the data and the evidence about what is right for you and use this to lead us to the answer. We are now starting work on this.

The government wants to know by March what our early proposals are for these new authorities. We then need to give our final proposals by the autumn of this year. 

I believe the best way to make this work is by working with our near neighbours, building on our relationships. We feel Torbay is in a great place, and we have a lot to bring to whatever the future looks like.