Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority Order 2026

Baroness Pinnock Excerpts

Tuesday 10th February 2026 Grand Committee

To conclude, these instruments represent clear progress im our mission to widen and deepen devolution in England and will make this a reality in Cumbria and in Cheshire and Warrington. They will empower local leaders to deliver for their communities, improving the lives of, and opportunities for, their residents. I hope noble Lords will join me in supporting the draft orders, which I commend to the Committee.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing these two statutory instruments, which are progress on the way to the Government’s policy of mayoral devolution. I accept the notion and principle of devolution as being very positive, but, as the Minister will know, I have questioned the way it is being done, and I have one or two comments to make in that regard.

Mayoral strategic authorities are being created across England, ostensibly of a similar nature. However, the population of the new Cumbria combined authority will be around 500,000, and the Cheshire and Warrington combined authority population will be nearly 1 million. How does this compare with what we have already? Well, in West Yorkshire, the mayoral authority serves 2.5 million people; it is five times as large as the new Cumbria one will be and, presumably, will be offering similar services. My own council, where I am still a councillor, has a population of nearly 500,000, which is as big as the proposed Cumbria combined authority.

I will be interested to hear how the Minister expects the Government to respond to this: there will be various layers of mayoral strategic authorities, because those mayoral authorities of a very large population, in the met areas mainly—of course, we always exclude London, because it is a separate entity altogether—will inevitably become the big players. How do the Cumbrias of this world, which are not as big as unitary councils, operate in being able to deliver on transport, skills and so on? There is a question of size, which I would like some answers on.

The other challenge in setting up these strategic mayoral authorities concerns the constituent members of the authority. For Cumbria, only two unitary councils are going to come together to form the Cumbria combined authority. The way in which these are set up—there is a directly elected mayor, and the combined authority consists of a member from each constituent authority plus those who can be nominated on—means that there will be three directly elected members on that constituent authority. That seems unusual to me, let us put it like that, because associate members will not be able to vote. Can the Minister explain how that might work?

The other question I have is about the fact that, as we are discovering in the English devolution Bill, mayors will be able to appoint up to seven commissioners to fulfil the tasks. I understand that there will be many major strategic tasks to undertake, but I challenge the idea of having appointees rather than people elected to these positions. Will Cumbria, for instance, be able to appoint up to seven commissioners? Do the Government expect that to be the case? Will there be any restrictions on the number? Ditto for the associate members, particularly for Cumbria, because it is quite small. The Cheshire and Warrington authority will not be much bigger; three authorities are combining there, I think.

This model of devolution is being rushed out across England. Where such a model has existed, have the Government done any assessment of the effectiveness of that model? I live in a mayoral strategic authority. If somebody asked me, as somebody who is already democratically elected in part of it, what has been achieved, I would struggle. I am sure that some things have been achieved, but are they going to shift the dial, as they say? I do not know, but I think the Government should have some way of testing the effectiveness of it all.

When I looked at the number of folk who engaged with the consultation, I discovered that it was very few. What on earth does it mean to your everyday person on the street? Not very much, so very small numbers engage. However, roughly two-thirds of those who did engage opposed it. How was that view taken into account? If it was not—that is, if it was just dismissed because the Government have this model that they want to roll out across the country, which they are entitled to do—then do not ask people, just do it, if you are not going to take any notice of the comments they make. It seems that people were totally ignored.

I have one final question in response to the comments made by the Minister. She said that, in the constitution of these authorities, if a mayor is not present for a decision-making purpose, the deputy mayor should take their place. The deputy mayor is an appointed person—

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Pitkeathley) (Lab)]

My Lords, there is a Division in the Chamber.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

I will be quick.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Baroness Pitkeathley) (Lab)]

The Committee will adjourn for 10 minutes; we will then come back to the noble Baroness.

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

I should have been quicker.

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

My Lords, I will just repeat the final comment I had to make. When the Minister referenced how the constituent authorities would be able to vote in decision-making mode, she referenced the fact that if a mayor was not able to be there, the deputy mayor could take their place and vote. Either that means the deputy mayor is an elected councillor who is nominated to be the deputy mayor in a constituent authority, or it may mean, as it does in my mayoral authority, that the deputy mayor is an appointee. I have a problem if they are an appointee, because they are not democratically accountable. Decisions should be made by people who are democratically accountable to the electorate., I would love that to be clarified. I wish I had finished before the Division, but with those remarks, I hope the Minister will be able to put me right on all the issues I have raised.

[Lord Jamieson (Con)]

My Lords, I first declare my interest as a councillor in Central Bedfordshire. I am grateful to the Minister for introducing these orders, which establish mayoral combined authorities for Cheshire and Warrington and for Cumbria.

As we have made clear in the discussions on the devolution Bill, we support the principle of English devolution and promoted this while we were in government. We support the creation of combined authorities where they have genuine local support, are properly funded and are designed to reflect the identities and needs of their areas. However, that support for devolution in principle does not absolve the Government of their responsibility to demonstrate that these proposals meet the statutory tests as set out in the 2009 Act, nor does it remove the need for proper scrutiny.

The question of funding remains unresolved and frankly a little bit troubling. The Government have indicated that these new authorities will receive additional funding over a 30-year period. How such long-term funding commitments will be guaranteed in practice is not clear. Can the Minister explain how the Government intend to provide genuine certainty to these combined authorities? They will need that if they are going to invest in long-term infrastructure projects, skills and transport planning. That requires predictable funding going forward. Also, as an aside, will mayors in future combined authorities receive similar levels of funding?

Linked to this is the mayoral precept. These orders enable the new mayors to levy an additional charge on council tax to fund these functions. While that power may be appropriate in some circumstances, it raises legitimate concerns about local accountability and affordability. We would welcome clarification from the Minister on the detail of central government funding expected to support local devolved functions and on to what extent the Government anticipate or indeed rely upon the use of the mayoral precept to bridge any funding gap. That also raises the question that the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, was moving towards of how we ensure scrutiny and holding the mayor to account.

The noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock, also raised the issue of size. Given the powers that the Secretary of State will have in the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill to push through potential mergers, what is the Government’s intention here?

Finally, I raise a specific concern about Cheshire and Warrington, which is the financial position of Warrington Borough Council. The estimated £1.8 billion of debt carried by the council is concerning, and it is not at all clear how the creation of a mayoral combined authority interacts with that reality. We ask for further detail: what special measures will be put in place to ensure that the debt does not undermine the financial stability of the new authority as a whole? Can the Minister assure the Committee that the creation of a combined authority will not directly or indirectly place additional burdens on neighbouring councils or local taxpayers?

Devolution done well can be transformative, but devolution done poorly risks creating new layers of governance without the trust, clarity or resources required to make them effective. We urge the Government to consider seriously the concerns raised by local communities, the scrutiny committee and this House. We will continue to support devolution that is consensual, properly funded and genuinely local, and we will continue to challenge proposals that fall short of these principles.

--- Later in debate ---

These targeted models of support are designed to drive the improvement work needed at each council and support their effective engagement in devolution and the Cheshire and Warrington combined authority. We continue to work closely with both councils and to monitor their progress. Clearly, one of the purposes of this will be to make sure that there is no ongoing impact on the new combined authority as we go forward. I hope I have answered all the questions—

[Baroness Pinnock (LD)]

Before the Minister finishes, will she answer my question about the position of the deputy mayor?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My apologies; I did not write that down because we were called out of the Room. A deputy mayor is there to do exactly what it says on the tin: deputising for the mayor. The deputy mayor can deputise for the mayor. It is not an elected position, and I understand the noble Baroness’s concerns about that, but all those mayors will need a deputy, so the deputy mayor can stand in for the mayor at meetings and cast the mayor’s vote. That is the situation.

In conclusion, these instruments deliver the commitment made—