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The organisation responsible for making Lancashire’s devolution deal a reality has pledged to be “prudent” with public funds.
The commitment came as the new Lancashire Combined County Authority (CCA) held its inaugural meeting on Tuesday.
The gathering, at County Hall in Preston, marked what vice-chair Phil Riley described as a “momentous moment”, coming almost decade after Lancashire first flirted with the idea of seeking more local powers and cash from the government. Few could have predicted quite how long it would take to secure them.
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With a knowing nod to the “million twists and turns” that have dogged and diverted the county’s devolution ambitions in the nine years since they first began to crystallise, Cllr Riley added: “Some people have said this would never happen, but here we are – finally.”
The CCA formally came into being last month, created as a mechanism for delivering the devolution deal struck in 2023 with the previous Conservative government and confirmed by the new Labour administration back in September.
That agreement – the second of three possible grades of devolution on offer – has handed Lancashire control over the adult education budget for the county, along with additional powers connected to regeneration and transport and a one-off £20m fund largely for innovation projects.
The meeting saw members set a £19.1m revenue budget for the first year of its operation, which does not include the separate innovation pot. Unlike combined authorities headed by a mayor, the CCA does not have the ability to raise cash by adding a charge to council tax bills.
Lancashire County Council’s deputy leader Alan Vincent sought to reassure residents that the funding to which the CCA does have access would be wisely spent.
“The principle…here is really to limit the expenditure of this organisation to start with and to slowly build it as we build up our income and the turnover of grants or whatever sources of income that we may have.
“We are not being profligate with the public’s money,” stressed County Cllr Vincent, who said members were not going to be getting an allowance for their CCA duties.
It was a sentiment echoed by Cllr Riley – also the leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council – who added: “Prudence is our overwhelming consideration.”
The three senior officers that legislation demands the CCA appoints – a chief executive, monitoring officer and chief finance officer – will be provided ‘in kind’ by the trio of councils that make up the new body: Lancashire County Council, Blackpool Council and Blackburn with Darwen Council. The latter has supplied its chief executive Denise Park to undertake the equivalent role – also known as the head of paid service – at the CCA. The three individuals will spend up to 20 percent of their time on CCA business.
However, Lancashire’s CCA has also opted to appoint a fourth senior figure – a chief operating officer – whose wage will form part of the organisation’s costs.
The meeting also saw the agreement of the CCA’s 173-page constitution, which will govern how it is run.
The chair of the Lancashire Business Board, Mo Isap – sitting as an associate member of the CCA – told the meeting the county must seize the opportunity provided by devolution to “shout” about its business successes and assets.
He said the new Lancashire Growth Plan provided the basis for engaging with businesses across the country and around the world – and trying to tempt them to Lancashire. But he warned the county would need to up its game and provide “a proper turn-key solution when it comes to people looking to invest”.
“[We need to] connect with those international potential investors who could be seeing Lancashire as a great investment proposition,” said Mr. Isap, who added that it was vital the existing local “business voice” is also heard.
Elsewhere, Rossendale Council leader Alyson Barnes repeatedly made the case for the “meaningful” involvement of Lancashire’s dozen district authorities within the CCA’s work. Two of their number will sit on the body, but only as non-voting, non-constituent members – a status which proved a bone of contention during the devolution process.
Meanwhile, Cllr Riley also paid tribute to the efforts in securing devolution of the CCA’s chair – and Lancashire County Council leader – Phillippa Williamson who was unable to attend the inaugural meeting following a recent bereavement.
“She has worked incredibly hard to make sure that this has happened,” he said.
The future isn’t far away
In an ironic twist, after the best part of a decade of devolution delay in Lancashire, the first meeting of the CCA saw members give the nod to a review of the entire set-up – which will likely see it overhauled after little more than 12 months in operation.
When the new Labour government decided to implement the ‘level 2’ devolution deal Lancashire had agreed with the previous Conservative administration, it did so with a caveat – namely that the county must bring forward proposals for “deeper and wider devolution” by this autumn.
The heavy hint in that statement, by local government minister Jim McMahon, was that the government wanted to see Lancashire make a rapid move towards acquiring the maximum number of powers available under devolution – and the elected mayor that comes with them. Disagreement over the desirability of such a figurehead amongst Lancashire’s 15 council leaders is one of the main reasons devolution took so long to come to the county in the first place.
However, any semblance of choice in the matter seemed to be taken out of the county’s hands late last month when Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced “the whole of the North” would have mayors by May 2026.
Nevertheless, the review to which the CCA has agreed still describes the possibility of Lancashire joining the government’s devolution priority programme – which puts local areas on the fast-track to an elected mayor – as being “subject to the outcome” of the review process.
The potentially fleeting nature of the current arrangements was summed up when its first year was described at the meeting by Joanne Ainsworth, Lancashire County Council’s principal accountant, as being both “inaugural and transitional”.
What can the CCA do?
***Decide how to spend Lancashire’s £21.7m allocation from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund in 2025/26.
***Improve and better integrate local transport, including via bus franchising, subject to further government approval.
***Better shape local skills, via control of the local adult education budget (from September 2026).
***Drive regeneration and increase affordable housing by exercising compulsory purchase powers.
***Strengthen the local visitor economy.
Source: Lancashire devolution deal
Where’s the money from and where it is going?
The vast majority of the £19.1m revenue budget set for the first year of the CCA will come from Lancashire’s 2025/26 tranche of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) – a total of £18.4m.
The cash pot was designed to partially replace funding streams lost after the UK left the EU. It can be used to support any projects that unleash the “unique potential” of local areas, according to government guidance.
Since its introduction in 2022, the fund has been under the control of the county’s dozen district and two unitary councils – and its shift into the CCA’s hands was a source of chagrin for many of Lancashire’s boroughs.
A further £3.3m will this year come Lancashire’s way via the UKSPF, which will be reserved for capital schemes – the construction of new assets – and which will be sent directly from the CCA to its constituent council members. The CCA does not have the power to borrow for capital projects
The remainder of the revenue budget will be made up of £750,000 in government “capacity funding” to get the authorityoff the ground, the same amount in expected interest earned from the ‘Growing Places’ fund and reserves to be transferred from the now defunct Lancashire Enterprise Partnership.
As part of its balanced budget for 2025/26, the CCA will transfer £800,000 into its own reserve fund, which Lancashire County Council’s principal accountant Joanne Ainsworth, said was an acknowledgement of the fact the CCA will “grow and need more money in future years”.
The meeting heard the revenue budget is likely to increase over the next 12 months as more grants flow into the CCA.
The authority’s only staff beyond its four senior officers will be skills workers who will transfer from the former enterprise partnership. A staffing budget has been set £263,000 for the first year of the CCA’s operation, which includes the directly-employed chief operating officer.
Other CCA costs detailed in a report presented to members include:
***£200k for consultancy support on transport, economic growth and skills issues, organisational development and the governance review demanded by the government by this autumn;
***£100k for external audit services;
***£30k on insurance;
***£40k for financial systems licences;
***£25k on information technology kit and licences;
***£25k for legal support;
*** £6,000 in general office running expenses.
How will the CCA work?
The Lancashire CCA has four constituent members, each with one vote: two from Lancashire County Council, in the form of leader and deputy leader Phillippa Williamson and Alan Vincent; one from Blackburn with Darwen Council, the authority’s leader, Phil Riley; and one from Blackpool Council, its leader Lynn Williams.
Two district council representatives – usually the leaders of Chorley and Ribble Valley councils – will sit as non-constituent members, who will not have a vote, a similar status to associate member Mo Isap, chair of the Lancashire Business Board.
According to the CCA’s constitution, decisions are to be made by “consensus of the [full] members where possible”. If a vote is tied, it will be considered not to have been carried. Some matters will require unanimity – including approval of the budget and the appointment of the legally-required officers.
The Lancashire Police and Crime and Commissioner is invited to attend the CCA’s main meetings – which will usually take place every other month – as an observer.
Meanwhile, independently-chaired overview and scrutiny and audit and governance committees will also be formed to monitor the CCA’s work. Their memberships will include six Lancashire county councillors, three each from Blackpool and Blackburn councils and two from the district authorities.
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