The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill sets clear ambitions for English devolution. Further powers for economic development on planning, infrastructure, transport and housing have been well flagged, but it is clear that public service reform – signalled by last week's references to Total Place-style budget-pooling from Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner – is now also a key part of the devolution agenda.
The intentions are clear, but scrutiny of the Bill must ask if it really embeds devolution in England's constitutional governance.
What if future governments lose interest? Who remembers Government Offices, RDAs and or even LEPs today? What if future chancellors won't back powers with resources? What if some departments do not engage?
Some key questions are not yet resolved. How quickly the weaker mayoral strategic authorities and foundation strategic authorities can gain the same powers as established strategic authorities is a huge question for those areas.
It helps that strategic authorities are an evolution of previous government policies, not a radical change in direction. But, as former Conservative and Labour ministers, we know serious devolution requires strong statutory underpinning if it is not to be undone by time and politics. The published Bill gives us some of what is needed, but by no means all.
The local government sector faces huge financial pressures and, in many places, reorganisation and/or the creation of new strategic authorities. The interests of the most established mayoralties do not immediately match those of the least.
Not all government departments share the same commitment to devolution. It is important that Parliament is not distracted by the welter of short-term issues but focuses on the long-term framework that might be the last major piece of devolution legislation for a decade or more.
In good news, strategic authorities will be established by primary legislation creating a consistency that earlier combined authorities lacked. The devolution framework will create a statutory right for different tiers of strategic authorities to exercise appropriate powers.
A legal ratchet mechanism should mean powers added to the framework cannot be easily taken away. Individual mayoral authorities will be able to request bespoke additional powers for their area.
Some key questions are not yet resolved. How quickly the weaker mayoral strategic authorities and foundation strategic authorities can gain the same powers as established strategic authorities is a huge question for those areas.
The Devolution White Paper promises extensive co-operation and collaboration between mayoral strategic authorities (MSAs) and many government agencies, with some transferring powers and resources, but it is still not clear how this will happen and who will oversee the process.
It makes sense to ensure individual councils cannot exercise a blocking veto on widely agreed mayoral policies and the ability of mayors to convene partners is key. But the success of devolution will also rest on the working relationship between mayors and their authorities.
The Bill should provide protection against the real danger that power moves up to mayors every bit as much as it moves down from Whitehall.
We have previously suggested MSAs should be required to produce comprehensive community empowerment plans that would go beyond the limited neighbourhood committees proposed in the Bill.
Accountability for mayoral spending is upwards to Whitehall and our calls for Local Public Accounts Committees have not made the Bill, although this might come later.
As the Bill stands, much of devolution policy will still lie in Whitehall's hands, including the powers in the devolution framework, the funding of new responsibilities and the granting of requests for new powers.
The engagement of government agencies with MSAs will be decided by ministers – indeed, the extent to which all government departments support the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government agenda lie solely with their ministers.
The crucial issue of fiscal autonomy lies outside the scope of the Bill and the right to decide the funding formula for local government is jealously guarded by Whitehall, even though it has implications for every local authority and strategic authority. Accountability for mayoral spending is upwards to Whitehall and our calls for Local Public Accounts Committees have not made the Bill, although this might come later.
A Parliamentary Bill cannot resolve every important question, but it can create the mechanisms to ensure they are resolved. Most importantly, it should establish a statutory body that brings together MSAs with central government to discuss and develop devolution policy. It could be created by putting the current informal Mayoral Council on clear legal basis, defining its membership and terms of reference and requiring all parts of central government to engage with it.
This powerful Mayoral Council should agree the devolution framework and the addition of new powers. It would identify and resolve practical problems as devolution develops, including the relationship with government departments and agencies and accountability around integrated budgets.
It would not just benefit mayoral authorities. Officials may value bilateral relationships with mayors that enable them to really understand an area. But as MSAs spread and develop this will become more onerous.
Central government needs a robust forum where it can engage with the entire devolved sector. Over time it would be where funding and fiscal autonomy could be agreed.
We welcome the Bill, and while current ministers remain in place, much progress can be made. But it needs to be future-proofed – not just against a change of government, but changes within government too.
The UK's largely uncodified constitution makes nothing completely irreversible, but undoing reform can be made politically very difficult. The measures we have suggested would help embed English devolution for the years ahead.
Prof John Denham is a professorial research fellow at University of Southampton and former Labour secretary of state for communities and local government. Sir David Lidington is a former Conservative minister who held posts, including cabinet office minister. He served as the de facto deputy prime minister to Theresa May
