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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the system of elected mayors in managing of local issues across large geographical areas.

Mayors have become vital local leaders, delivering on the promise of change in their area to drive growth, more joined-up delivery, and earning trust. We want to see all of England benefit from devolution and it is the government’s strong preference that in filling the map, places do so with a Mayor over a strategic geography.

To deliver devolution successfully, it is vital that we build evidence of how best to implement our policies over time. In the English Devolution White Paper, we committed to exploring a public evaluation on the outcomes of devolution to date, a feasibility study on the impact of different devolution commitments and ongoing process and impact evaluation to capture evidence on devolution as it becomes available.