Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, What is her Department's policy on allowing residents of a newly formed strategic authority to vote on governance changes.

There is no statutory provision for a local referendum on the governance arrangements of a combined authority or combined county authority. A strategic authority's members are councillors appointed by its constituent councils and accountable to their local electorates, and where an authority is mayoral its mayor is directly elected by residents across the whole area. Residents therefore have a route to influence how governance changes are considered through their elected representatives.