County's leaders ask: Why should we have a mayor?

Lancashire currently has 15 different councils but there is a plan to reconfigurate

Lancashire could join Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region in having an elected mayor if the government can persuade the county's leaders that the role would bring "clear and substantial benefits".

Lancashire Combined County Authority (LCCA), established earlier this year to oversee devolution, has written to ministers to clarify exactly what extra funding and powers would be granted were it to be replaced by a mayor-led model.

One of the signatories was Stephen Atkinson, who leads the Reform UK-run county council.

While historically opposed to the idea of a mayor for Lancashire, he said it was important to be certain of the situation and to ask ministers, rather than just "assume".

'More for Lancashire'

The LCCA request for a breakdown of mayoral benefits came in response to the conclusion of a government-ordered review designed to enhance Lancashire's embryonic devolution agreement, which was formally implemented in February.

That locally undertaken assessment found that moving to a mayoral model would give the county "a range of legal powers [and] funding commitments" that would enable the LCCA "to deliver more for Lancashire" than the current deal allows.

The government has been particularly strident in its attempts to persuade any places without a directly-elected mayor to adopt such an arrangement.

Devolution, the process by which local areas are handed greater freedoms from central government and extra cash to go with them, has been the source of a huge debate in Lancashire - and for those who serve on its 15 councils - for nearly a decade.

Councillor Stephen Atkinson is a critic of the mayoral model

The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that the purpose of the LCCA letter, at least in part, may be to try to flush out exactly how much additional cash would come the Red Rose county's way were it to accept the mayoral model.

A previous request to the government from Atkinson for a legally-binding referendum on having an elected mayor seems improbable because ministers refused permission for such a vote on a forthcoming shake-up of the county's council system.

Were Lancashire's political leaders unable to agree a way forward by August 2026, however, ministers could go over their heads.

Both Cumbria and the Cheshire and Warrington regions have committed to having an elected mayor, meaning that unless anything changes, Lancashire is on track to become the only area in the north of England not to have one.

'Losing companies'

Meanwhile, a business group warned that Lancashire was "losing companies" to regions like Greater Manchester, because of the ongoing absence of an elected figurehead.

Mo Isap, who chairs the Lancashire Business Board and is also a non-voting associate member of the LCCA, said devolution deals were about more than just money.

"[Mayoral authorities are] able to leverage from the private sector – whether that's foreign direct investment or direct investment from the private sector in the UK. That has a direct implication [for] job creation.

"A lack of clarity and confidence affects the private sector more than it affects anybody else.

"People who've approached me... are making investment decisions outside of our region, because they believe there is more support that's being leveraged through that devolution situation [in other areas].

"We're already losing companies to Greater Manchester and elsewhere from our towns," Isap warned.