The Government's English devolution agenda is introducing many new responsibilities and ways of working. Mayors will be required to publish a local growth plan, a spatial development strategy and a transport strategy. They will have a duty to reduce health inequalities and improve health. Perhaps most significantly, the Government has made a large number of commitments to collaborative governance relationships with mayoralties.
Mayors' assortment of new functions will give them space for innovative thinking and new forms of local data. One new mechanism that meets this need is the Health Appraisal of Urban Systems (HAUS) model. It uses an economic valuation approach to estimate the potential effects of development decisions on population health.
