Challenging the ‘S’ of Mayoral Strategic Authorities: Standardisation over Strategy?

Abstract The Labour government's English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (EDCEB) represents the most ambitious attempt yet to embed devolution and ‘empower communities’ across England, completing the map of devolution under mayoral strategic authorities. This article argues that, while well intentioned, the Bill's approach of ‘devolution through standardisation’, combined with expanded central powers and an upsizing tendency in implementation, risks magnifying existing regional inequalities. The EDCEB overlooks differences in institutional capacity and collaborative histories, obscures local preferences around political engagement and does not adequately address concerns over regional identity, accountability and resilient democratic participation. The article concludes that effective devolution depends on recognising difference, earned autonomy and incremental institution‐building, questioning whether mayoral strategic authorities can be effectively implemented under the logics of standardisation.