{"id":719933,"date":"2026-07-30T23:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719933\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T23:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T23:16:08","slug":"burnham-to-free-mayors-from-treasury-death-grip-with-new-devolved-powers-devolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/719933\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham to free mayors from \u2018Treasury death grip\u2019 with new devolved powers | Devolution"},"content":{"rendered":"

England\u2019s regional mayors will be able to break out of the \u201cdeath grip of the Treasury\u201d by borrowing to invest in big projects under \u201ctransformational\u201d plans to shift power out of Whitehall.<\/p>\n

For the first time, mayors will keep a share of income tax generated in their area from 2028, as well as business rates totalling tens of millions of pounds by April 2027.<\/p>\n

These will replace existing grants rather than being additional money, but local leaders said no longer relying on ringfenced Treasury handouts would \u201ctransform\u201d their funding.<\/p>\n

Oliver Coppard, the Labour<\/a> mayor of South Yorkshire, said: \u201cIt\u2019s really important because it gets us out of the death grip of the Treasury and gives us that long-term certainty around income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham will announce the measures on Friday as part of what he called \u201cthe biggest transfer of power from Westminster in a generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cUnder our plans, more of the taxes raised in a community will stay in that community. Soon, every local leader will have the power and resources to improve public transport, build homes and create jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what it\u2019s like to be ignored by politicians in Westminster. I\u2019m not going to make that same mistake now I\u2019m PM.\u201d<\/p>\n

Under a new \u201clocal first\u201d principle, Burnham will instruct ministers to justify why powers should remain in Whitehall rather than be devolved.<\/p>\n

As well as greater control over technical education for teenagers<\/a>, announced by the government this week, some of those close to the prime minister have called for mayors to oversee schools, GPs and childcare providers through health and education commissioners \u2013 a similar role to that played by police and crime commissioners.<\/p>\n

No 10 said Britain\u2019s civil service of 520,000 would become \u201csmaller and more strategic\u201d as decision-making moves out of London, where one in five of these officials are based.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s directly elected mayors, who control areas spanning three-quarters of the population, would be able to use the revenue generated from business rates and income tax as they wish, including tax breaks for important industries or rebates to residents.<\/p>\n

However, experts said one of the most significant consequences was that it would allow combined authorities to take out 30-year loans against their projected income to fund major projects that previously needed Treasury approval.<\/p>\n

Mayors said they were currently prevented from funding huge initiatives on housing and transport because they could not take out private loans on the basis of one-year funding settlements from Whitehall.<\/p>\n

Henri Murison, the chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, said the change \u201ccompletely transforms\u201d what combined authorities would be able to do.<\/p>\n

He said the ability for mayors to borrow against future income could unlock huge transport projects such as an underground station at Manchester Piccadilly.<\/p>\n

It is not yet clear what proportion of income tax or business rates would be retained by combined authorities, with officials still working on the numbers. John Healey, the chancellor, is expected to set out the detail in the autumn budget.<\/p>\n

Ben Houchen, the Conservative mayor of Tees Valley, suggested he would use the income tax to hand out tax rebates to local people.<\/p>\n

However, it is understood that this would be technically extremely difficult given mayors do not know how much individuals have paid in tax. Also, because the income tax revenue is not additional money for mayors but is replacing government grants, it is more likely to be spent on long-term projects than giveaways to residents.<\/p>\n

Ministers are considering ways to ensure less economically productive areas such as Humberside and north-east England are not left behind. If mayors received 2.5% of the 20p basic rate of income tax, London would get \u00a32.3bn in 2026-27 while Hull and East Yorkshire would get \u00a3135m, according to a report last month<\/a> by the thinktank Re:State.<\/p>\n

The thinktank IPPR North described the move as \u201cthe most significant shift in how England is funded in a generation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Policy experts previously said rushing ahead with fiscal devolution risked creating a \u201ctwo-tier England\u201d, potentially leaving behind roughly a quarter of the country\u2019s population that did not have a mayoral authority.<\/p>\n

The government is planning to encourage these areas \u2013 spanning millions of people in Dorset, Somerset, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and parts of Kent \u2013 to form mayoral authorities in order to benefit from greater autonomy over their funding.<\/p>\n

Since 2024, only two combined authorities \u2013 Greater Manchester and West Midlands \u2013 have been able to keep all of the business rate income generated in their areas.<\/p>\n

In Greater Manchester, this amounted to \u00a3100m in 2024-25, the first year of operation. Three-quarters was retained by each of the 10 local authorities and \u00a325m was kept by the mayoral authority and spent on projects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"England\u2019s regional mayors will be able to break out of the \u201cdeath grip of the Treasury\u201d by borrowing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":719934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-719933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=719933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/719933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/719934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=719933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=719933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=719933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}