The English Devolution White Paper was published on 16 December 2024. This sets out the national government’s approach to deepening and widening devolution in England. This commits to a devolution by default approach with an explicit preference for a mayoral model in order to be able to access additional powers alongside greater financial flexibility. This is allied to a policy of local government reorganisation which anticipates the end to the current two tier system of District and County Councils and instead the creation of Principal and Strategic Authorities with guideline minimum populations of 500k and 1.5m people respectively.
Joint statement 28022025