Devon County Council Leader Cllr John Hart joined the leader of Torbay Council Cllr David Thomas and Levelling Up Minister MP Jacob Young to sign what is being described as ‘a ground-breaking deal that could transfer significant decision-making powers and funding, from Whitehall to local government in Devon and Torbay.’

That same day the South Hams Gazette reported that Devon County Council was in debt to the equivalent of £624 per person, Torbay Council £2,747.

‘This is a very significant day for Devon and Torbay,’ said Cllr Hart, ‘for the eight district councils, and for the nearly one million people that we actually represent, because it’s an opportunity for us to change what we’re doing, the way that we’re doing it, and get better value for our money than we sometimes get when we bid to government and then get strings attached.

‘We will have the right to do it our way,’ he added.

Cllr Thomas was equally enthusiastic.

‘This is a real opportunity of national government saying here’s whole set of powers that you can deliver at a local level’, he explained.

So it was interesting to hear the Levelling Up Minister explain just what those powers will be.

‘They’re going to be able to set a new transport plan and they’re going to have the devolution of the adult education budget from the government for the first time which means they can set the local skills priorities here as well’, said the Minister.

In order to do so a new layer of local government, namely the Devon and Torbay Combined County Authority has first to be established ‘including’, according to 40-page proposal accompanying the announcement, ‘the creation of a leaders group led by a nominated chair, to provide overall vision and leadership, seek the best value for taxpayer’s money, and be accountable to local residents’.

That leaders group will consist of ‘six constituent members appointed by the two constituent councils (Devon County Council and Torbay Council), with each constituent council appointing three of their elected members. Each constituent council will appoint one Lead Member (normally the Leader) and two further members nominated by the Leader of each constituent council’ – in other words John Hart along with two of his Devon County Council colleagues and David Thomas and two of his.

In addition there will be ‘four non-constituent members, of which two will be members nominated by the District councils within the Devon area to act as District representatives’ and two associate members as decided by the CCA itself, one of whom ‘will represent the voice of business and another the skills/education sector’.

Additionally Alison Hernandez, who was also present at the announcement, will attend and participate in the meetings in her role as Police and Crime Commissioner as an associate or non-constituent member.

However, although the CCA is to be made of up of constituent and non-constituent members, all decision making will be split between reserved and general matters, and ‘decisions on reserved matters will be for constituent members only and will require a simple majority of constituent council members to vote in favour’.

Those reserved matters will include the election of the chair, agreement of the annual budget, the policy framework, the scrutiny arrangements and all major investment decisions.

So not only will Cllrs Hart, Thomas and the four colleagues of their choosing get to decide who is to mark their homework – ‘the scrutiny arrangements’, but they will also agree the budget, the policies and make all the major investment decisions. We can only hope, given they will ‘have the right’, as they say, ‘to do it our way’, they won’t end up presiding over anything like the debt they do in their existing roles!

More crucially the two representatives of the eight district councils have no say on any reserved matters, while the other six district councils have no representative of their own present at any of the meetings.

Again, although the Conservatives remain the largest party on both Devon County Council and Torbay Council, that is no longer true of any of the eight district councils. There’s therefore the question, given either Cllr Hart or Cllr Thomas is almost certain to be the leader of this new authority and its constituent members will be their appointees, just how politically representative it is likely to be?

You might also wonder why neither we as residents nor our elected district councillors are to have any real say in whether we wish to participate even though, as the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act makes clear, as council tax payers, we are the ones who are going to have to pay for the CCA.

And despite the proposal promising some support for ‘the Devon and Torbay CCA in its early stages of this deal,’ with the government providing ‘£250,000 of Capacity Funding in 2024/25, £500,000 in 2025/26 and £250,000 in 2026/27’, not only is this unlikely to meet the full cost, but there is no commitment any funding will continue.

The government is also potentially making a one-off grant to the CCA of £16 million ’to support the delivery of local housing priorities, drive Net Zero ambitions and support green skills, and accelerate wider low carbon business transition across the Devon and Torbay area’. But ‘this investment is subject to agreement of the relevant business cases’, so there are no guarantees.

The ‘support for local housing priorities’ is to come about through ‘greater collaboration between Devon and Torbay CCA and Homes England to reduce the barriers to affordable housing delivery, regeneration and housing growth – with a particular focus on rural and coastal communities.’

Were that not sufficiently vague the proposal is even less clear as to what the authority will actually do to ‘drive Net Zero ambitions and support green skills, and accelerate wider low carbon business transition across the Devon and Torbay area’.

Fortunately there is to be a six-week consultation, due to start on 12 February, after which if both County and Torbay Councils agree, the final ‘Deal’ proposal will be submitted to the government for approval and the Combined County Authority will come in to being.

We can therefore only hope the consultation is going to tell us precisely what this new layer of local government will actually be able to do that cannot be done by any of our existing district councils, whose elected representatives have a far better understanding of what is needed on their own patch than anybody located many miles away.

And as we’re going to have to pay for it, we need to be told precisely what it is all going to cost.

Of equal importance, the consultation must also contain a simple yes/no question as to whether residents wish to be part of the Devon and Torbay CCA or not.

Neither Devon County Council, Torbay Council nor the government has a mandate to impose another layer of local government upon us, whether in this form or any other, without first obtaining our agreement.

Surely Cllr Hart and Thomas would agree that to do otherwise will be profoundly undemocratic?