Today, I am pleased to announce that the Government have published details of the integrated settlements for Greater Manchester combined authority and West Midlands combined authority for the period covering the financial year 2025-26.
The Government’s primary mission is to drive economic growth and raise living standards. This can only happen if local leaders have the right tools to deliver for their residents and businesses. As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, we must rewire England and end the hoarding in Whitehall by devolving power and money from central Government to those with skin in the game. Above all we need to free mayors to direct funding to where it delivers the best outcomes and value for money.
These historic integrated settlements are the first of their kind and will consolidate funding across more than 20 different funding streams covering housing, regeneration, local growth, local transport, adult skills, retrofit, and employment support. This will give mayors greater flexibility when spending devolved funding and empower them to make the strategic policy decisions necessary to foster growth and deliver better value for money and outcomes for their residents.
Over the coming weeks, we will work with Greater Manchester and West Midlands to agree the outcomes that they will use these settlements to deliver, and which will form the basis of the single accountability framework, replacing the complex and fragmented reporting processes that have existed to date. As part of this framework, these authorities will have flexibility to move funding between policy areas, helping to deliver better value for money and improved outcomes for citizens.
The English Devolution White Paper set out our intention to extend the benefits of the integrated settlement to more areas. The Government are already working rapidly to bring these settlements forward for mayors in the North East, Liverpool City region, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire mayoral combined authorities from the ’26-27 financial year. The Government are also exploring how the settlement policy could be applied to the Greater London Authority.
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