‘Tips the balance of power’ was how IPPR North described the devolution bill when it was introduced in July 2025. On 29 April 2026, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill received Royal Assent, following the English Devolution White Paper published on 16 December 2024 and putting into law a new route for powers to move out of Whitehall and into mayor-led regional bodies. Ministers say the new framework is meant to speed up devolution and give elected mayors more control over transport, planning, housing and regeneration. (ippr.org) For northern readers, that is the bit to watch. This is not abstract constitutional tidying-up. It is about who gets to call the shots on buses, homes, town-centre sites and local growth in places such as Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, the North East, West Yorkshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Lancashire, and York and North Yorkshire. (gov.uk)

There is a high-street side to the Act too. A new Community Right to Buy will give local people first refusal when valued assets such as shops and community centres go up for sale. Councils will also get Gambling Impact Assessments to help curb further clustering of betting shops, and upwards-only rent review clauses will be banned in new and renewed commercial leases so traders are not trapped paying yesterday’s rent in today’s market. (gov.uk) In towns across the North, where one boarded-up unit can drag down a whole parade, those measures will be read less as Westminster theory and more as a test of whether ministers are serious about giving communities a fighting chance to keep hold of the places they rely on. (gov.uk)

On the streets, the law goes after a few everyday problems that councils have long said they struggle to police. It introduces national standards for taxi drivers and lets enforcement officers suspend licences issued by another authority when a driver is working outside the area that licensed them. It also gives more local transport authorities powers to act on dangerous pavement parking, including fixed penalty notices, and brings in licensing powers for rental e-bikes so councils can set rules on parking, safety and accessibility. (gov.uk) That may sound dry on paper, but residents who deal with blocked pavements, cluttered hire-bike bays or patchy enforcement will know why local authorities have wanted firmer powers. (gov.uk)

The bigger constitutional shift is the creation in law of Strategic Authorities. Government guidance says the new category is meant to make it quicker and easier to pass powers away from Westminster, with mayoral authorities receiving a wider set of powers and Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities able to ask formally for more. The same guidance is clear that these bodies are not meant to replace councils, which will still handle frontline local services while regional authorities deal with issues that cut across council boundaries. (gov.uk) The government says it wants every part of England to have a Strategic Authority in time, and it has standardised much of the system after years of one-off deals that left places with different powers depending on when they negotiated. For the North, where the complaint has long been that London keeps the chequebook and the rulebook, that is a meaningful shift if it is followed through properly. (gov.uk)

The northern significance is already visible in the numbers. Government guidance says that from 2026/27 Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, South Yorkshire, the North East and West Yorkshire will join London and the West Midlands in receiving Integrated Settlements, giving nearly 40 per cent of England greater freedom over how money is spent. The same guidance says Hull and East Yorkshire and Lancashire have been established as new Strategic Authorities, with adult skills powers also passed to York and North Yorkshire. (gov.uk) That helps explain why northern business groups have spent months pressing for a stronger settlement. CBI Yorkshire & Humber described the legislation as a ‘long-overdue opportunity’, while CBI North East said it should give local leaders stronger control over skills, transport and planning. (cbi.org.uk)

The Act also tightens accountability around mayors. Local Scrutiny Committees will examine public spending and decision-making in mayoral authorities, while Mayoral Strategic Authorities will be required to produce local growth plans and to consider health improvement and health inequalities when making policy. Mayors are also being given stronger planning tools, including the ability to step into strategically important planning applications, make mayoral development orders and charge a mayoral community infrastructure levy on developers. A new Local Audit Office is meant to improve the way council finances are audited. (gov.uk) For northern councils, businesses and community groups, the question now is not whether devolution sounds good in a press release. It is whether this new law produces better buses, fairer rents, sharper scrutiny and more control over the future of local high streets. After Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, ministers no longer have the excuse that the legal framework is missing. (gov.uk)