According to the Labour Party, devolution for Sussex will result in more investment for the region and give the counties more powers.

Devolved funding will be used to improve:

• Housing and regeneration
• Local growth
• Adult skills (except apprenticeships)
• Local transport

The precise programmes that will be devolved and the amount of funding each authority receives will be decided at the Spending Review in June.

Devolution for Sussex will mean there will be a 30-year investment and capital fund which is flexible to drive growth across the authority according to local, Sussex-wide priorities. It will be a mix of revenue and capital funding. The Mayor and their voting members can raise a ‘precept’ which is an additional sum to be charged to residents alongside their Council Tax.

Transport

Responsibility for buses and transport will fall to the new Mayor who can oversee an enhanced Transport Partnership, a franchised system or a publicly owned transport system. Decarbonising public transport and reducing air pollution will be central to the authority’s work under devolution for Sussex. Active Travel England will support the new authority’s work in relation to walking, wheeling and cycling.

The Sussex Mayor would have a statutory role in governing, managing, planning, and developing the rail network, including Southern Rail and Thameslink. If they meet the criteria, they will be given powers to manage the rail stations and Network Rail.

Regeneration and growth will be the primary focus with the Mayor able to coordinate and regenerate the areas around stations to include more housing and infrastructure. In some areas there are neighbourhood plans, for example in the Hove Station Quarter and Rottingdean under devolution for Sussex.

A ‘Key Route Network’ will be coordinated by the new Mayor and the authority to ease pressures on the A27 for example, both East and West of Brighton and across the region. The Mayor and new assembly will hold ‘a power of direction’ over this network of roads to support delivery of their agreed Local Transport Plan.

‘Local Lane rental schemes’ will charge companies undertaking roadworks on busy roads at busy times with the aim of minimising disruption. National Highways will work with the new devolved authority.

Education and Employment

Adult skills funding will be drawn down from the Department of Education to support adults aged 19+ into education and training. In the future there will be ‘supported employment’ funding to help disabled people back into work.

A ‘Get Britain Working Plan’ will be drawn up by Mayoral Authorities to reduce economic inactivity and drive integration between national and local health, work and skills provision in the area. The work plan will include apprenticeships, education and training that lead to good employment outcomes under devolution for Sussex.

Housing

Development of housing and infrastructure will become easier. Between 2021 and 2024 the Spending Review stated development was on brownfield sites. Mayoral Development Corporations are legal (statutory) bodies created to coordinate housing developments like a neighbourhood plan. A Mayoral office can ‘call in’ planning applications if there are concerns about the Spatial Development Strategies. They can also charge new developments using a ‘Mayoral Community Infrastructure Levy’ to support infrastructure.

Economic Development and Regeneration i.e. Growth

In Sussex, there will be a local Growth Hub that feeds into a national Business Growth Service run by the Department for Business and Trade. In addition, the new authority will strengthen connections with businesses and universities through UK Research and Innovation (UKRI.)

Labour wants to ‘Make Britain a clean energy superpower’ by cutting carbon and protecting the natural environment and biodiversity. They want a ‘low-cost, clean power energy system’ like the windfarm we already have offshore in Brighton and Hove. Green voters should read about Labour’s publicly owned Great British Energy Company and their Warm Homes Plan to lift the poorest and least energy efficient households out of fuel poverty. If devolution for Sussex goes ahead, the region would play a leadership role in Local Nature Recovery Strategies which would be coordinated and would include greater funding.

Health

The Sussex Mayor will be considered for the role of Chair of the NHS Integrated Care Partnership about which I feel very uncertain. It may add another level of accountability to NHS management at Board Level across the seven NHS partners in the Sussex region. I think the NHS is one of the most complex organisations in the UK and I think there are huge risks associated with an outsider holding the budget who is neither a clinician nor an NHS Manager. I may be wrong, I don’t know.

Policing

It’s proposed that the Mayor also takes on the role of Police Crime Commissioner and the person in charge of Fire and Rescue. Emergency services need their own funding and a dedicated person in charge. However, the Police and Crime Commissioner should be held accountable by the Mayor of Sussex which might strengthen policing and fire and rescue across Sussex as it has done in London.

The PCC and NHS Chief Executives can be given voting rights on the new Sussex Board, as can leaders of the new unitary authorities. Some powers will be given to the elected Mayor alone, presumably for policing, fire and rescue and health. Other powers including investment, employment and skills, planning and transport will be shared by Board members.

In time, the Sussex Mayor can apply for ‘Established Mayoral Status.’ The Mayor will then get even more devolved budgets and more money for Sussex because it’s a deeper level of devolution.

Under devolution for Sussex, the region should attract greater investment and should have more autonomy like most of northern England and the Midlands. The vast majority of Mayoral Authorities are controlled by the Labour Party.

Residents of Brighton and Hove would prefer to remain as a unitary authority within existing boundaries and I don’t think this is an option. Brighton and Hove can merge with Adur and Arun to the West to retain its coastal heritage and distinctiveness. East Sussex would like to maintain its existing partnerships and its population is roughly the correct size for the new unitary authority. The new, larger Brighton and Hove authority will have two voting members like East and West Sussex.