"Remove the restriction" is the line that matters in a dry piece of statutory drafting. According to legislation.gov.uk, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 (Commencement No. 4) Regulations 2026 bring section 12 of the Act into force on 13 November 2026, changing how mayoral combined authorities and combined county authorities can issue precepts. It is not a flashy Westminster announcement, and plenty of residents will never read the statutory instrument. But for places across the North that have spent years hearing promises about power moving closer to home, this is the sort of legal change that decides whether devolution works in practice.

The explanatory note says section 12, headed "mayoral combined authorities and CCAs: precepts", amends section 40 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, section 107G of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009, and section 41 of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. In plain English, the change removes the rule that meant precepts could be issued only for mayoral functions. A precept is the charge added through local council tax billing arrangements to fund a body’s work, so the measure gives devolved authorities more freedom in how that power can be used.

For readers outside town hall finance, that may sound minor. It is not. The powers attached to devolved institutions only mean so much if the funding rules stay too tight, and section 12 is aimed at that dull but important part of the system. Across Northern England, where devolution has often been sold on buses, skills, regeneration and local control, this is the small print that carries weight. The regulations do not set a new rate or order a new charge by themselves, but they do widen the legal route for regional bodies to issue a precept beyond a narrow mayor-only test.

One boundary stays in place. The explanatory note makes clear that where a mayor also exercises police and crime commissioner functions, there must still be a separate component for those responsibilities. That matters for transparency. Residents should still be able to see the policing element set apart rather than quietly folded into a wider regional charge, which is likely to matter in areas where trust in local finance has to be earned.

The regulations were made on 28 October 2026 and signed by Jim McMahon, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, using powers under section 108(6) of the 2026 Act. They are the fourth commencement regulations connected to that law. The headline moment came when Parliament passed the Act. The real handover, though, often happens later, clause by clause, through short instruments like this. For regional leaders outside Westminster, those quiet legal steps are often where the real authority starts to take shape.

Ministers have not produced a separate impact assessment for these regulations. The explanatory note says that is because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is expected from this commencement step alone, and it directs readers to the wider assessment prepared for the main Act. For Northern readers, the takeaway is straightforward. From 13 November, another piece of England’s devolution settlement moves from promise into operation. It will not make many front pages, but for councils, mayors and communities trying to build stronger decision-making beyond Westminster, it is a real shift in the rules.