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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether mayors in (a) mayoral and (b) county combined authorities will have rights of veto.

The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, introduced to the House of Commons on 10 July 2025, makes provision to standardise voting arrangements for mayoral combined authorities and mayoral county combined authorities when making decisions. Unless prescribed otherwise, the standard voting arrangement will be a simple majority of the authority’s members voting and present, including the mayor. This means the mayor must be in the majority for a decision to pass.