The Local Authority is a podcast by Local Government Chronicle. Each month, the podcast will ask fundamental questions about how local government needs to adapt to fulfil its full potential and best serve local populations. It will see LGC assemble a small panel of significant figures from the sector to discuss one specific issue per episode. All will have a focus on the future, with the emphasis being on innovation, fairness, policy change and place leadership. Between launch in May 2021 and June 2023 the podcast was sponsored by TPXImpact.
Episodes
Wednesday Apr 15, 2026
Wednesday Apr 15, 2026
Metro mayors are the poster boys for devolution, but councils have a vital but often unappreciated role in combined authorities – soon to be renamed strategic authorities. With the government planning to ‘complete the map’ of devolution in England and reform how strategic authorities operate, this episode of the Local Authority podcast examines the relationship between strategic authorities and their constituent councils.
Acting editor Martin George is joined by Mark Rogers, associate director of the Leadership Centre, who has led teams establishing three new combined authorities, and Akash Paun, a programme director at the Institute for Government, where he leads the institute’s devolution programme.
1 months ago
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1 months ago
As a current South Gloucestershire councillor, and having previously served on Avon County Council and Northavon District Council, I’m afraid this discussion misses some of the realities of combined authorities and elected mayors. In practice, mayoral elections tend to reflect national political trends rather than the capabilities of individual candidates. Voters often decide based on the popularity of parties at Westminster, with limited scrutiny of the candidates themselves. There is also a structural issue with campaigning. The scale of combined authority areas means that only major parties—primarily Labour and the Conservatives—have the resources to campaign effectively (with Reform now entering the picture). This limits the range of viable candidates. In the West of England Combined Authority, this has been clear. A Conservative mayor was elected when Labour was out of favour; a Labour mayor followed when the tide turned, whose tenure was marked by disputes with local leaders and ultimately serious misconduct issues. The current mayor was elected with around 25% of the vote on a turnout of roughly 30%, raising questions about democratic legitimacy. Governance is also difficult. Where councils are politically aligned, decisions can be coordinated informally, but mixed political control makes consensus much harder. There is also a tension in scale: smaller areas lack strategic weight, while larger ones lack public identity. When Avon County was abolished and replaced with four unitary authorities, the need for a strategic tier remained—hence the West of England Combined Authority, though without North Somerset. One improvement would be directly elected combined authority councillors, focused on strategic issues rather than local priorities, which currently dominate