London’s devolution deal was the first of its kind. With a series of successes under its belt, Centre for London are asking what does the next 25 years look like?

As part of their work with polling partner Savanta, they asked Londoners their perspectives on London’s governance:

• 3 in 5 of Londoners (62%) supported the Mayor and London Borough councils having to work together to make decisions if London was given greater control over funding of public services, housing and jobs, with only 12% amount opposed.
• When asked who they trusted most to act in the interests of themselves and their communities, local councils came out on top (33% of Londoners trusting them most), followed by the Mayor and city government (21%) and national government in last place (15%)
• Finally, when asked about decisions of tax and spend, 42% of Londoners were in favour of their local council or the Mayor having greater control, with only 25% being opposed.

Centre for London’s polling highlights the consistent pro-devolution opinion of the London populace. This aligns with the successes of London’s 25 years of devolution settlement.

Transport is the area where London currently has the most devolved power. Within this context, there’s been a series of groundbreaking achievements. Contactless payments, now available across the world, was pioneered by TFL in the form of the Oyster Card. The Elizabeth line, which has delivered an estimated 200,000 new office jobs, was 75% self-funded by the city. And, the ‘metroisation’ of train lines in the North and East of London through devolving ownership to TFL has seen ridership increase by 80%.

Successes lie outside of transport as well. In housing, the proportion of affordable housing per housing scheme rise from 25% in 2011 to 37% in 2022. Meanwhile, even though the Adult Education is only partly devolved to the capital, since it’s delegation to city government, the GLA has seen enrolments rise significantly more than in non-devolved areas.

Despite this, in some respects London’s devolution settlement trails behind that of Manchester and the West Midlands.

Most notably, London has only just been granted an integrated funding settlement – this was confirmed for 2026/27 in the Spending Review. These settlements end the individual, fragmented grant system for city government. Instead, these MCAs are provided with a single funding pot, allowing them to set their own budgets for each of their functional responsibilities – from housing, to adult social care, to health, to transport. An integrated settlement essentially allows budget setting which fits local circumstances, rather than budgets being dictated by national government.

With 25 years since our devolution deal, and a clear track record, the capital requires fiscal devolution to allow agile governance and begin to tackle the long-term issues facing the capital – namely stagnating productivity and the ongoing housing crisis. The London Finance Commission set out a series of suggestions ten years ago – including retention of business rates, power over property taxes and a proportion of income tax devolved to the capital.

Yet, almost no moves towards greater fiscal devolution have been made since the Commission’s final publication. London’s pitch to national government is strong, with devolution of certain financial powers costing no money to national government on day one of implementation. Yet, to solidify our offer, it may be time to codify the relationship between London Borough Councils and the GLA, to show a united front of London’s governmental bodies in a strong bid for fiscal devolution.

Antonia Jennings, CEO at Centre for London, comments below:

“London’s contribution to the country is strong. Providing £1 in ever £4 to the Treasury, despite only 13% of Brtis living here, we are the nation’s economic powerhouse Meanwhile, within our devolved powers, we’ve gone from strength to strength.

However, the strictly mandated grants provided by government are restricting London’s ability to be agile and respond to both market changes and the needs of Londoners.

There are two steps which need to be taken. One is within the city. Regional and local levels of government need to formerly agree the decision-making powers over certain areas of the Mayor’s role that are particularly important to local areas.

Meanwhile, national government needs to work both with the Mayor and with local councils to establish the next 25 years of London’s devolution settlement. Our successes are strong, but London’s devolution should not be viewed as a done deal”.

Cllr Claire Holland, Chair of London Councils, comments below:

“Londoners want to live in a city that is well run, ambitious for the future and equipped to tackle the big challenges they face in their day-to-day lives. This timely research from Centre for London shows that the majority of our residents want to see all layers of London government working together to take decisions about how public money is spent.

“This reflects our long-held belief that we can get better outcomes for Londoners by hard-wiring collaboration between the Mayor and boroughs into London government. We’ll continue working with the Mayor, national government and partners across the city to modernise our devolution arrangements so that we can build on the success of the last 25 years and drive positive change in the capital.”