England devolution 2026 rules protect nine councils
This statutory instrument looks dry at first glance, but it does an important job. Published on legislation.gov.uk, it was made at 4.43 p.m. on 29 April 2026 and came into force on 30 April 2026. Its purpose is not to launch a brand-new devolution deal. It is to stop ongoing local government plans in England from being knocked off course by a change in the law. If you are wondering what 'transitional and saving provisions' means, think of it as a legal handover note. When Parliament changes the rules, there has to be a clear answer to one simple question: what happens to processes that were already under way? These regulations give that answer.
The big point sits in regulation 2. Before the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 was passed, the Secretary of State had already carried out some consultations under section 46(3) of the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023. Those consultations were about creating a CCA, or Combined County Authority. **What this means:** if a devolution process had already started under the 2023 legal route, the Government is not forcing that area to switch halfway through to the new 2026 wording. For those cases, the older 2023 Act provisions stay in place for the purpose of making the regulations that establish the CCA.
That protection applies only to a named group of 'relevant councils'. The regulations list Essex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Portsmouth City, Southampton City, Southend-on-Sea City, Suffolk and Thurrock. That list matters because this is not a blanket rule for every council in England. It is a targeted measure for places where consultation work had already been done before the 2026 Act was passed. In plain English, the Government is saying: if we have already started this process with you under one set of rules, we will finish it that way.
This is where the article's legal language becomes easier to read. Section 4 of, and Part 2 of Schedule 1 to, the 2026 Act changed parts of the 2023 devolution framework. Normally, once those changes exist, you might expect them to apply straight away. Regulation 2 says they do not apply in these already-consulted cases when ministers are making the CCA regulations. That is a good example of how transitional law works. It does not usually change the political direction. It changes the route people take to get there. Here, the route is being kept steady so councils and officials do not have to repeat consultation work or risk a technical challenge because the statutory wording changed mid-process.
The regulations also do some quieter legal housekeeping. They say that sections 102 and 103 of the 2026 Act apply to these CCA regulations as if the regulations had already come into force before those sections themselves came into force. You do not need to memorise the section numbers to see the point. The idea is to avoid a legal gap. Even though these council areas are being allowed to use the older 2023 route for part of the process, the wider saving and consequential powers in the 2026 Act can still catch them. That helps older and newer rules sit together without leaving loose ends.
Regulation 3 deals with a separate and more technical issue involving the Greater London Authority Act 1999. The 2026 Act changed the wording in section 424(1) of that Act, including the definition linked to functional bodies. These new amendments will not apply when reading section 44 of the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 or section 23 of the Local Government Act 2003. For readers, the useful takeaway is simple. Sometimes a new definition in one law can quietly alter how older laws are read. This regulation stops that from happening here. For audit and local government finance purposes in those two Acts, the new 2026 wording is not being carried across.
That might sound tiny, but it is the sort of detail that keeps public administration stable. Definitions are not just dictionary entries inside legislation. They decide who counts, which powers apply, and how accountability rules are read. When ministers carve out an exception like this, they are usually trying to avoid accidental knock-on effects. **What it means for councils and residents:** this instrument does not itself create a mayor, redraw local boundaries or hand over a dramatic new package of powers. It keeps existing devolution work legally tidy while the larger 2026 Act beds in.
The explanatory note says no significant impact on business, charities or the public and voluntary sector is expected. It also points readers to an impact assessment produced for the 2026 Act as a whole, available through Parliament's publications. The instrument was signed by Miatta Fahnbulleh, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. So the fairest way to read this is as a continuity measure. It tells nine named council areas that if their CCA consultation began before the new Act arrived, the Government will not move the goalposts halfway through. In devolution policy, that kind of legal steadiness can matter just as much as the headline announcements.