Labour's devolution blueprint would give English mayors sweeping control over social care, health and skills

A blueprint for reshaping how England governs itself is taking shape inside Labour circles, and it reads like a direct challenge to decades of centralized power. The proposal, authored by JP Spencer—a policy architect helping Andy Burnham prepare for a likely move to Downing Street—would hand English mayors control over social care, childcare, health services, and skills training. It's a radical decentralization, and it signals how thoroughly Burnham intends to remake the machinery of government if he becomes prime minister.

Spencer leads devolution policy at ThinkLabour, a thinktank aligned with Burnham's thinking. His paper argues that the old command-and-control systems emanating from Whitehall have failed to solve the country's most stubborn problems. Instead, he proposes a state reorganized around local democratic boundaries, with a central government that guides rather than dictates. Under this model, mayors would appoint health and education commissioners—officials with real authority over local schools, GP practices, and childcare provision, mirroring the role already played by police and crime commissioners. Sixth-form colleges and the government's skills agenda would fall directly under mayoral control, potentially drawing more than £4 billion annually from the growth and skills levy to fund the work.

The urgency behind this thinking is rooted in a stark fact: England suffers from some of the worst regional inequality in the western world. Seven of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe are English. That disparity, many experts argue, traces directly to a political system that concentrates power in London and starves the regions of real decision-making authority. Burnham has already begun signaling this shift. Earlier in the week, he announced plans to relocate parts of the Downing Street operation to Manchester, declaring that the era of Whitehall resisting devolution is finished.

The proposal extends to policing as well. Spencer endorses Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood's plan to consolidate England and Wales's 43 police forces into between 12 and 20 larger regional constabularies, but with a twist: align them with mayoral boundaries and allow mayors themselves to serve as police and crime commissioners. This could address concerns that larger forces would become unaccountable black boxes. Burnham, however, is reportedly skeptical of Mahmood's broader restructuring, so Spencer's alignment proposal may offer a middle path.

These ideas are not entirely new. Steve Reed, the current housing and local government secretary, previously considered similar proposals but decided against pushing beyond the existing devolution bill, which allows mayors to request additional powers. Now Reed says he wants to go further, telling the Guardian that regional economic inequality is tearing the country apart and that deeper devolution is the answer. Angela Rayner, his predecessor in that role, is scheduled to deliver a speech committing Labour to further devolution and is being mentioned as a possible successor to Reed under a Burnham government.

But resistance exists within Labour's own ranks. Some MPs, particularly those representing Kent, worry about the prospect of a county mayor who would almost certainly be elected from Nigel Farage's Reform UK. The political math in certain regions could produce outcomes that make some Labour figures uncomfortable. Darren Jones, Keir Starmer's chief secretary, has also sounded a cautionary note. He warned that pushing power out of Whitehall must be coupled with actual cuts to the central bureaucracy. In the past, he noted, devolution has simply meant duplicating oversight—adding regional layers without removing Westminster ones, creating more state rather than more genuine local power. For the model to work, he argued, Westminster must genuinely trust local leaders to make decisions without constant second-guessing from the center.