Heart of the South West Devolution - Newsletter 1

Heart of the South West

16 October 2015

Heart of the South West

Weekly update

This is the first weekly update from the Heart of the South West Devolution Programme Management Office.

Please share this newsletter with your colleagues, and please do use the information provided in your own communications.

If you would like to give us any feedback on this newsletter, or would like more information on any of the topics discussed, please email us on DevolutionPMO@somerset.gov.uk and our team will gladly help you.

Best wishes

Heart of the South West Devolution Programme Management Office


Who is involved?

19 local authorities, together with the Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership, are leading on devolution for the Heart of the South West area, though many other organisations are involved.

See the full list


Greg Clark MP

Letter from the Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

This week all Heart of the South West council Leaders received a formal letter from the Secretary of State responding to the Statement of Intent we submitted on 4 September.

He congratulated us on our hard work, said that he was keen to work with us on a formal devolution agreement, and that he has asked his team to work with us on detailed proposals.

This is a key step forward for the Heart of the South West, and demonstrates that our overall ambition is one that the Government shares and would like to develop.


Padbrook Park

On Monday 5 October Leaders and Chief Executives met to develop their ideas for devolution and agree some next steps, including the following

Timeline to submit our bid

Now: Theme groups developing and refining draft chapters.

13 November: Draft chapters passed to the Programme Management Office to be compiled into a single draft bid.

20 November: Single draft bid distributed to partners for comment.

20 November – 18 December: Reworking of the draft bid and formal approval of the bid by individual partners.

18 December: Formal submission of devolution bid to Government.

In the coming weeks…

Theme leads will develop their theme and bring the expertise, information and ideas together to produce draft proposals.

Partners will continue to keep in touch and we expect further contact from Government soon.

Map of Devon