The House Opinion Article | Devolution must go even deeper

5 min read18 min

Take back control. One of the most effective yet divisive pieces of political messaging in recent memory. Whatever you think of its use during the Brexit campaign, you’d be hard pushed to find a phrase which better describes the political mood of the country over the past decade.

It manifests in all sorts of different ways. Anger at the impact of private equity and multinational companies on the fabric of our public services and places. Frustration that the state can’t fulfil seemingly basic functions, like repairing potholes. And, of course, a sense that the state doesn’t have control of our borders, starkly exemplified by the debate on small boat crossings. Together, a widespread feeling that people have less and less ability to shape what’s going on in the world around them.

The best way to respond to this public sentiment today is through a persistent focus on the ‘last mile’ of devolution, not just devolution to mayors and regions, but down to the community level. If done well, there’s political ground to be won. The ‘take back control’ sentiment shows up in data all over the place, and the newly published findings from the government’s Community Engagement Survey are no different.

The survey shows a big jump in the number of people who feel it’s important to have the ability to influence decisions affecting their local area. Three in five place importance on this, up nine percent on last year. We’re Right Here’s polling finds that, when looking at where this comes from, 84 per cent of people feel they have little or no control over important decisions affecting their neighbourhood and community. Put simply, people increasingly value local influence, but most feel they do not have it.

So, how to capitalise on this politically? Politicians of different stripes have tried to respond to this in a range of ways. With Andy Burnham installed in No 10 (and of course Heron House), you could be forgiven for thinking that the PM is already well out ahead of this. Devolution has never been more fashionable and ‘rewiring the state’ is the talk of Westminster.

True, but does the current approach capture what the call to “take back control” is reaching for? Our analysis of the Community Engagement Survey shows no discernible difference in people’s perceived ability to influence local decisions between those in areas with devolution and those without. The suggestion is, as important as it is for our national growth story, not all devolution gives people that sense of local control, the feeling that they can actually shape things.

This is where the untapped opportunity lies – if Burnham can see Pride in Place not merely as a standalone programme, but as a governing ethos which captures the spirit of his administration

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The Community Engagement Survey and other polling and survey work consistently show a stark difference between how positive people feel about their local area, and how negative they feel about the country at large.

The Keir Starmer government understood this. It was the political logic at the heart of Pride in Place. It went something like: if we can harness people’s pride in their local area, and help build it further, we’ll receive political benefit as a result. This resulted in a £5bn programme of funding for 300 ‘doubly disadvantaged’ neighbourhoods across the country. Residents and communities were given the power to decide how £20m is spent in their neighbourhood over the next decade. Giving people the power and the tools to take back control.

Despite its radical premise, given the hyper-local focus of the fund, it currently only serves less than 5 per cent of the population. The Starmer administration also struggled to join the programme up with a wider message. Burham is a very different politician and much more comfortable exercising a form of ‘progressive communitarianism’ which we saw in action via his Live Well agenda in Greater Manchester. This is where the untapped opportunity lies – if Burnham can see Pride in Place not merely as a standalone programme, but as a governing ethos which captures the spirit of his administration.

We’ve started to see Burnham dance close to this in his focus on restoring pride in local high streets, accurately identifying its political potency. But people do not just want better places, and the power to stop high street uses they don’t want. They want a greater say in what happens in their local area.

In an essay for Power to Change, We’re Right Here and the UCL Policy Lab last year, Burnham set out this vision himself: “The country is crying out for change. But not just any change. People don’t want more promises from on high. They want to be part of something. They want to be seen, heard, and trusted.”

To harness the opportunity that’s there in front of it, the new administration should ask itself three questions. Is our agenda thinking as much about the ‘last mile’ of devolution as the first 100? How can we apply the principles of Pride in Place to a much wider sweep of government policy? And, ultimately, is the change we’re creating something where people can be ‘part of something’?  

Nick Plumb is Director of Policy and Insight at Power to Change and was a board member of the High Streets Task Force from 2022 to 2024