Mayors and combined authorities are the future of devolution in England,  but the ways in which citizens can understand, scrutinise, or influence them remain unclear.

Our latest report, Mayoral scrutiny: supporting an ecosystem of accountability organisations, argues that devolution will not deliver on its promises unless we also invest in new forms of civic and democratic oversight. It is not enough to create powerful new Mayors; we need to create the ecosystem that holds them (and the wider web of regional institutions) to account.

Why scrutiny matters

Combined authorities are designed to bring councils together to plan and deliver across a region. But unlike the London model, they do not have an elected assembly meant to hold the mayoral executive to account.

Existing models, such as council scrutiny committees or parliamentary hearings, can only go so far. Combined authorities need scrutiny that reflects the full complexity of their networks and partnerships.

A scrutiny and civic development fund

We highlight two complementary approaches already being explored:

• Local Public Accounts Committees (LPACs): technocratic bodies that examine how public services work together across a region, looking not only at the Mayor’s decisions but at value for money and collaboration across agencies.
• Democratic journalism funds: public-interest media funds guided by citizens’ assemblies, ensuring independent, locally relevant journalism that supports democratic life.

We propose bringing these ideas together in a new Scrutiny and civic development fund: a local grantmaking body with priorities set by a citizens’ assembly. The fund would support a mix of civic institutions — from expert-led scrutiny committees to independent journalism — that together strengthen public accountability and regional identity. Approaches along these lines would help ensure that devolution does not just move power geographically, but makes it genuinely more responsive to the people it serves.

Supporting existing scrutiny

This report also explores ways we could apply our existing tools and approaches to sustain and connect the accountability ecosystem that already exists. Through tools like MapIt, TheyWorkForYou, and WhatDoTheyKnow, we can build a civic democratic stack to support journalists and civic technologists to understand and monitor combined authorities.

We’ll also continue to explore how civic tech can make these new layers of governance more transparent, and how data and digital infrastructure can support the work of local scrutiny.

Read the full report

The report explores the history of scrutiny in English devolution, how these proposals could work in practice, and sets out the steps to strengthen the civic fabric around mayors and combined authorities. You can read it here. 

Header image: Photo by Omar Flores on Unsplash