Lancashire and Essex to have elected mayors as Burnham pushes devolution

Chancellor John Healey could also unveil plans for other regional authorities in southern England and the Midlands

Chancellor John Healey will announce the introduction of elected mayors in Lancashire and Essex in Wednesday's Budget, as part of a raft of new local leaders to push forward Andy Burnham's devolution agenda.

The move for Lancashire comes after years of wrangling over the governance of the county, the only area of northern England that does not already have an elected mayor in place or in progress.

Ministers are also seeking to make announcements about other mayoral authorities in the south of England in order to fulfil Burnham's ambition of pushing power out of Westminster.

English devolution has been focused on cities in the north and Midlands, ever since a decision to hand powers to Greater Manchester under Conservative chancellor George Osborne a decade ago.

Three people with knowledge of Wednesday's devolution measures said they would include a mayor for Lancashire.

Essex is due to be confirmed today after councils in the area backed a mayoral strategic authority last week. Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Swindon also set out plans this week for a Thames Valley mayoralty.

Two people said that ministers had been holding discussions about an announcement of a series of other mayoral areas in the Budget, including Staffordshire.

Kent, Hertfordshire, Leicestershire and Devon have also been discussed, although it is unclear if all will be confirmed on Wednesday. Some areas are likely to see an announcement of the principle of a mayor, with further details to be decided later, people familiar with the matter said.

Burnham said at Prime Minister's Questions last week that he wanted to "move quickly to get a fully devolved Wessex and south-west of England".

However, in many of these areas contentious questions remain about the reorganisation of local government, which is currently being reviewed by ministers and has proved a stumbling block to council agreement in some areas.

Lancashire, which features rural and smaller urban areas north of Manchester, is currently governed by a complex structure.

In much of the county, 12 district councils deliver specific local services, such as planning, while an overarching county council runs other functions, such as social care. Separately, Blackpool and Blackburn with Darwen have their own unitary councils, covering both functions.

The government believes a simplified structure would create a smaller number of more straightforward authorities across Lancashire, overseen by a new elected figurehead.

Reform UK, which was elected to run Lancashire county council in 2025, had opposed the idea.

But council leader Stephen Atkinson indicated he was now open to the premise, subject to detail.

"We await to see the government's offer for Lancashire and then we will have a conversation at a political level and then a wider level with our residents," he said.

A "delivery plan" -- setting out exactly the relationship between central and local government -- was still required, he said.

"Let's get the details of the powers, let's get details of the investment fund and the capacity funding," he added of the potential offer from ministers, adding that he had not ruled out a local referendum on the matter.

"And then you can get a wider conversation with the people of Lancashire to see if they want a mayor."