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Created through the Government's Devolution Priority Programme (DPP), Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority (HSCCA) has officially come into being.It has arrived against the backdrop of a two-year delay in the mayoral elections to May 2028 and a central decision on local government reorganisation (LGR) in Hampshire that has drawn criticism locally.Perhaps the delay was due to politicians sensing trouble ahead, or Hampshire's LGR shake-up proving to be one of the country's most contentious reconfigurations.The Government has opted to replace 15 councils with five unitaries, including the Isle of Wight, which remains unchanged as its own unitary. This result has provoked Hampshire CC and Portsmouth into formally launching judicial reviews.So, it is a rocky environment for the HSCCA's interim chief executive Ruth Adams to navigate, as she lays the groundwork for a mayor and undertakes the bedding-in stages with government.HSCCA's aim is to bring together Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton to work on shared priorities that affect people's everyday lives, from transport, skills and homes to jobs, growth and public services.Speaking to The MJ just ahead of the authority's inauguration, Adams explains the challenge for a region with an economy worth around £70-£80bn, but with slowing growth, an ageing population and employers facing skills gaps.The HSCCA is running to catch up with York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (Y&NYCA) and the East Midlands Combined County Authority (EMCCA), both formed about three years ago. Speaking ahead of last week's announcement that four more areas including Y&NYCA and EMCCA have been given mayoral strategic authority status, she says: ‘They're doing the work to accelerate to established status, but they had a mayor from day one, whereas we need to set up and get the mayor.'She adds: ‘We need to prove to government that we've got strong, good governance and that we're a capable pair of hands to take the statutory responsibility for skills and transport. And then you go through a process with government to get established status and the integrated settlement. That's the prize that all new combined authorities are looking to get, because it just liberates so much for us.'Adams, who has experience from helping to establish the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, says that Whitehall handing over small funding streams for careers hub and skills boot camps to authorities is ‘almost like decentralisation… government saying this is the product and you're going to administer it for us'.In contrast, an integrated settlement ‘says what outcomes do we want to fund, all of those ringfences are removed and these are the outcomes we can fund'.She points to the region's tourism assets, including the Isle of Wight and rural Hampshire, ‘and everything is beautiful, but that that geography comes with challenges as well'.The real strength of her patch is the defence sector. ‘In the north of the region and around the port complex, we are a big player in the defence supply chain.‘When you think about the scale of Southampton and Portsmouth and that gateway into the south of the country for trade, export and passenger numbers, it's just a phenomenal opportunity for us.'She says government could work with the region, and devolution ‘gives us that opportunity to really amplify those sectors and how we work with the supply chain and the rest of the country'.There's a ‘big bit of work that we've got to do on getting more people into employment', she adds.The headline funding package for HSCCA is £1.3bn of long-term investment funding paid over 32 years, equivalent to approximately £44.6m a year. The Government has adopted a staged approach, with 40% of the annual investment allocation (around £17m), plus additional capacity funding being made available in 2026-27 and 2027-28.Adams admits the elections delay has frustrated her. ‘Pushing it down the road by two years really was a bitter pill to take. We need to make progress, but to do that in a way that acknowledges there's going to be a mayor that wants to put their manifesto stamp on all these priorities too. So, we would have preferred government to not have done it, or if they did do it, to delay it by a year, but not two years.'With the revival of the National Economic Council, which will meet from No10 North and include regional mayors and senior Cabinet ministers, Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the days of power being hoarded in SW1 are over.But how soon will it be before Hampshire and the Solent feels the benefit of his commitment to bring ‘good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart'?Adams says the Government should not wait until combined authorities have an integrated settlement before they engage with them.What is her message to Burnham? ‘I'd be saying we're a devolved area that because of the decision of government has not got a mayor yet. But don't create a different category of devolved administration. Allow us to be on the same path that the mayors are, because in time you won't know that one got set up five years before another. We need to have open access.'The key role of the Prime Minister's Mayoral Council is to maintain dialogue with mayors on devolution. Currently, regions without a mayor are not members, which, says Adams, is ‘understandable, but how does government engage with these developing areas like Hampshire, Sussex, Brighton, Cumbria, and Cheshire and Warrington?'She concludes: ‘That's one of the things Whitehall needs [to be able] to say. How did they help accelerate our development and engagement with government, given that we've not got the mayor for two years.‘One of the things I would really like government to do is just start to enable combined authorities to have a little bit more flexibility pre-single settlement.'

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DEVOLUTION

Turning delay into delivery

By Ann McGauran | 12 August 2026

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