Hampshire devolution: Fresh doubts over Solent mayoral deal as fairness called into question
Concerns have been raised regarding the fairness of governance in the Mayoral Combined Authority, which may expose Hampshire County Council to financial disadvantage and result in its underrepresentation in decision-making.
However, the leader of the county council said he is confident that the conversations between the four upper-tier authorities will result in a fair agreement.
Hampshire County Council (HCC) will be one of four constituent councils of the new Solent Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA), alongside Southampton City Council (SCC), Portsmouth City Council (PCC), and the Isle of Wight, each with voting rights.
A draft Statutory Instrument (SI) outlines the regulations establishing the region’s MCCA as a legal entity, and the governance and voting arrangements are defined.
In the SI, Hampshire County Council is given two votes, while the other constituent councils and the Mayor each receive one vote, resulting in a total of six votes.
The draft SI also provides that the constituent councils are responsible for the costs of the MCCA and Mayoral overspends that are not covered by other sources.
Any overspends would be distributed among the four constituent councils based on their population sizes.
As the constituent council with the largest population, the county council would be accountable for 70 per cent of these costs.
This means that the county council has 33 per cent of the influence but 70 per cent of the liability, which creates significant risk for them.
This would mean that residents of Hampshire would be underrepresented in MCCA Board decision-making, compared to residents of Portsmouth, Southampton, and the Isle of Wight.
In light of the risk, county council officers made strong representations to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, as well as the other constituent councils.
They said that it would be unfair and inappropriate for Hampshire taxpayers to be responsible for covering 70 per cent of any costs not covered by other sources for implementing a decision made by the MCCA Board, which members of the county council’s MCCA Board did not support.
Therefore, the report said: “If the county council does not approve the SI, the Secretary of State will not be able to lay the SI in Parliament in Autumn 2025, and the Hampshire and Solent MCCA will not be established.
“There can be no Mayoral election in May 2026, nor devolved powers and funding to Hampshire and the Solent, if there is no MCCA in the region.”
These concerns were also raised by Cllr Kim Taylor during the full council on Wednesday, September 14.
She said that the imbalance of representation and the potential financial risk when things are already “tight” could impact the services the county council offers, particularly to the most vulnerable.
Cllr Taylor added: “Therefore, whilst I am confident, and I truly hope that our local negotiations to come to a better settlement will bear fruit, I’d like to understand the options if they do not or if we are not satisfied that the risks have been properly mitigated.”
In response to the comments, Nick Adams-King, leader of the county council, said that the council will not agree to “an open chequebook” and that he is confident that a fair agreement can be reached.
Cllr Adams-King said: “I’m confident that we’re getting to a place where we need to be, and the concern that we have is shared.
“For us, I think it’s a red line, and so we will not agree to an open chequebook in the sense of having to agree to bear 70 per cent of every single cost.
“We are not being asked to do that by our colleagues and by our partners at the moment, that’s why I’m quite confident in saying that I’m sure we will get there. What we need to do is have something about which we are all very happy and we can settle upon.”
Cllr Adams-King told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that all parties involved understand the council’s point of view and the risk, and the conversations are ongoing.
“We are not going to get into a position where they happen to say ‘we won’t be able to agree to this’”.
It is expected that a further report will be presented to the cabinet in October, confirming or rejecting the SI, and therefore, the creation of the MCCA.