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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether local authorities in areas subject to the Government's local government reorganisation programme may establish a Mayoral Strategic Authority before reorganisation is completed; and whether the establishment of such an authority is contingent on progress towards implementing unitary local government.

Devolution and local government reorganisation are two distinct processes. The recent announcement of a pause on the Local Government Reorganisation Programme does not impact our overall ambition to achieve full devolution coverage by the end of 2028. Unitary local government can help with the smooth functioning of strategic authorities, but it is not generally a prerequisite for their establishment. We will be confirming next steps on the creation of new strategic authorities soon.