The Government's English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill was conceived as a vehicle of local renewal – a recalibration of the relationship between town halls and Whitehall to hand power back to local communities. But as it makes the slow journey towards becoming legislation, the local government landscape is becoming ever more complex.
Reform UK's advance in the May 2025 local elections, coupled with more than half of councils now under ‘no overall control,' has created a fractured landscape in which the Bill's ambitions may fall short. At the same time, a lack of clarity on climate change, funding and planning raises serious questions about the Bill's effectiveness in its current state and whether these weaknesses will leave it wide open to failure once implemented.
