GEORGE Osborne’s ‘devolution revolution’ has hit rocky ground in Hampshire, where the county is split between those who support the creation of a Solent Combined Authority and those who appear to want no part of it.

While the chancellor’s hope was to announce a fully fledged proposal for Hampshire in the March budget, this failure to agree has led to a call by Hampshire County Council for “a devolution rethink”.

According to county council leader Roy Perry, the council, having worked hard to develop a devolution deal for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, was told by the Government, at the last minute, that no deal would be possible without a directly elected mayor at its head.

The county council was opposed to a single person having so much individual power over such a vast and diverse area.

It is an issue that has split the county and caused the Solent authorities to develop a separate proposal.

While it is a deal that currently excludes Hampshire County Council, it is one East Hampshire District Council has bought into – as have the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) areas in Winchester, Test Valley and the New Forest.

In a statement on Tuesday, Portsmouth City Council leader Donna Jones confirmed the conclusion of negotiations with HM Treasury to achieve a Solent devolution deal.

It will include eight councils: East Hampshire District Council, which has been working in partnership with the Solent LEP; Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport and Havant borough councils; the Isle of Wight Council, and Portsmouth and Southampton city councils.

The deal, Ms Jones said, would lead to more money being spent in the Solent region to improve roads and infrastructure, with: a directly elected mayor attracting funding to invest in economic growth and housing; devolved responsibility for strategic planning; increased business productivity; job creation; adult education and training improvements; a dedicated transport budget; provision of franchised bus services; the maintenance of a key route network of local authority roads, and the delivery of homes.

It would also see the region take control of its own financial future by keeping all business rates generated in the area in return for stepping away from existing Government funding for local councils.

District council leader Ferris Cowper said the Hampshire and Isle of Wight devolution bid, led by the county council, had failed because most leaders had chosen not to sign up to it and so it was withdrawn.

“The Government has encouraged the county council to join the Solent Combined Authority bid so that its skills can be readily deployed in this vital economic engine room of the county,” he said.

The Grayshott councillor gave his reasons for preferring the Solent bid over the defunct county bid were: “Democracy, housing scale and economic focus.”

The democratic point is distinguished by the unanimous agreement of all eight Solent leaders to opt for the appointment of “a constrained mayor”, he said.

Rather than adopting the standard Government model for a directly elected mayor – which gives the mayor complete power over the local councils involved, relegating the mayor’s cabinet to a volunteer advisory body – the Solent constrained-mayor arrangement would give the cabinet executive power.

In almost all cases, the mayor’s powers would be curtailed by a two-thirds majority cabinet vote and, in the case of housing numbers, every member of the cabinet would have a veto.

“This constrained model offers far greater assurance to the residents, businesses and volunteer groups in East Hampshire that the increased centralisation and geographical remoteness of the new mayor will not bring about insensitive or inappropriate decisions to our local communities,” said Mr Cowper, who believes the smaller Solent Authority area will be more manageable and guarantee a cabinet place for every leader of the constituent councils.

On the question of housing, while the defunct county bid had featured new layers of bureaucracy, including a housing delivery board “that could alter any and all of the Local Plans,” the Solent bid will, said Mr Cowper, respect the sovereignty of each council’s Local Plan and its right to deliver it as written.

Mr Cowper added: “Our bid maps well to a defined area of powerful economic focus – The Solent.”

In East Hampshire, the regeneration of Whitehill and Bordon had significant synergies with Fareham’s new Welborne town, he said.

The district’s main-road infrastructure is the gateway for Portsmouth’s road access to London and the M25, and the district council has significant links with Havant borough.

Mr Cowper said: “Looking at the Solent opportunity holistically, it offers a far superior opportunity to develop our much publicised and nationally renowned strategy for complete financial independence, with the opening up of the Solent area to our growing businesses and to the business aspects of our council.

“The bid offers all of us the opportunity to accelerate our vision of a new, financially robust model of local government in Britain.

“In the Solent Combined Authority we can do this through an exciting pilot in this compact yet powerful economic zone.”

lLast week, Mr Cowper announced he would be standing down as a county councillor for the Headley ward, covering Liphook and Grayshott, because of his growing work load brought about by the Whitehill-Bordon project. A by-election will be held in May.