Who makes decisions where you live?

A diagnosis of illegible power and a test

As devolution moves to the top of the political agenda, with Andy Burnham promising growth in every postcode, it’s a good moment to reflect on what local power really means.

So how does power work in your area? Who makes the crucial decisions? Who chooses them? Who can dismiss them? This is democracy at its most basic.

At the end of this piece I share a simple quiz that I’ve found useful. Over the last few years I’ve been increasingly struck that very well-informed people, and probably most people reading this sentence, have only the vaguest grasp of how decisions are made where they live and who is making them. We may all be in favour of devolution and place-based policies in general, but without a grasp of what the current reality is and what might be possible in the future these risk being little more than words.

In many countries there may be two or three tiers of government, but usually it’s fairly clear who does what. In the UK we not only have several tiers but also a remarkably tangled web of quangos, boards, partnerships and agencies, partly the result of the steady disempowerment of local government over many decades (I started my career in local government and have worked with dozens of local authorities over the years, so have seen this hollowing-out up close).

ICSs (Integrated Care Systems) are a classic example. There are 42 of them and they are not a bad idea as a way to make the NHS more joined up. But only a tiny fraction of the public has heard of them, knows who they are or has a clue what they do.

My children went to very good state schools – but were never given even the most basic education on how power is exercised, and this seems to be the norm everywhere. I’m convinced this is one reason why people feel a lack of agency. Democracy depends at a minimum on knowing who is making decisions and having some sense of who you might complain to, and how you might kick them out. Power has to be legible for democracy to make sense.

With a new Prime Minister committed to radical devolution this must matter. I’m wholly in favour of devolving more serious power to the Combined Metropolitan Authorities. This will be essential for good governance in a country that is seriously overcentralised.

But there is a risk that these devolutions won’t answer the simpler question of legibility - and this should be a test for any devolution programme. New concentrations of power in a few big cities covering regions the size of many nations may not be experienced as taking back control. Two decades ago I came up with the phrase ‘double devolution’ to signal that we needed devolution from central government to Mayors and others as well as further devolution right down to neighbourhood level, which is where daily life happens. I’m even more convinced that’s needed now.

There’s a parallel challenge in relation to corporate power, which is rarely talked about in this context. A few years ago I wrote about how hard it was to find out about the basic systems we depend on for the essentials of life, energy, communications, money or food in our local area. Where are they? Who owns them? Who regulates them? How are crucial decisions made, for example about which streets get prioritised for broadband? Few know the most basic answers to these questions and they, too, have become much more opaque in recent years.

Here I share a few questions I’ve found are good starting points which you could try answering. My hope is that any renewal of democracy and governance will address this, the question of legibility – making it easier to know how everyday decisions are made, and, in time, simplifying structures. I would love to see research on whether my diagnosis is right, and any ideas on better solutions. Otherwise it will remain plausible for populist politicians to say that people have lost control and to claim that they are the answer.

THE POWER QUIZ

In the area where you live, who decides:

· 1. What is taught in secondary schools?

· 2. How many GPs there are?

· 3. Whether and when to fix potholes in roads?

· 4. What routes buses should take?

· 5. What chemicals are allowed in food sold in shops and restaurants?

· 6. What crimes the police should prioritise?

· 7. How to ensure local businesses cut their carbon emissions?

· 8. Who should get priority access to social housing?

· 9. What’s done if someone spreads lies on social media?

· 10. Whether a new high rise in the town centre gets to be built?

And then two supplementaries: How many of these people/organisations do you help to choose? How many of these can you dismiss?

Try your hand at the quiz. Take a deep breath.

ANSWERS

Then look at these rough answers, helped by AI, for a typical English locality in 2026.

1. What is taught in secondary schools? The Department for Education sets the National Curriculum, which local-authority-maintained schools must follow. But most secondary schools are now academies, which technically don’t have to follow the National Curriculum (though they must teach a “broad and balanced” one, and in practice GCSE/A-level exam specifications—set by exam boards regulated by Ofqual—dictate content). Individual schools and academy trusts decide the details. The local council has almost no say.

2. How many GPs there are? Not the local council. GP practices are independent businesses contracted by the NHS. The local Integrated Care Board (ICB) commissions primary care for its area, within budgets and contract terms set nationally by the Department of Health and Social Care (which has been absorbing NHS England’s functions since the 2025 decision to abolish it). Ultimately GP numbers depend on national funding, training places (set centrally), and where GPs choose to work—no one body simply “decides.”

3. Whether and when to fix potholes? The local highway authority—the county council or unitary authority—for local roads, using its own prioritisation criteria, though heavily dependent on central government funding pots. Motorways and major A-roads are National Highways, a government-owned company.

4. What routes buses should take? Historically, mostly private bus companies, since deregulation in 1986—they run whatever routes are commercially viable, with councils subsidising some socially necessary routes. This is changing: following the Bus Services Act 2025, any local transport authority can now pursue franchising (as Greater Manchester did with the Bee Network), letting the council set routes, fares and timetables. So the answer depends on whether your area has franchised—in most places it’s still the operators.

5. What chemicals are allowed in food? National (and partly retained international) regulation. The Food Standards Agency assesses safety and advises; ministers in Westminster (and devolved governments elsewhere in the UK) make the rules, much of which is retained/assimilated EU law. Local council environmental health officers enforce the rules in shops and restaurants but don’t set them.

6. What crimes the police should prioritise? The Chief Constable has operational independence over day-to-day policing. The elected Police and Crime Commissioner (or metro mayor in some areas) sets the local Police and Crime Plan and budget priorities. But the Home Office sets national priorities, funding, and things like the Strategic Policing Requirement, which strongly shape what forces actually do.

7. How to ensure local businesses cut carbon emissions? Largely central government—through national schemes like the UK Emissions Trading Scheme, energy efficiency regulations, building regulations, and company reporting requirements. Local councils have declared climate emergencies and can encourage, convene, and use planning powers and licensing at the margins, but they have very few legal levers to compel private businesses to decarbonise.

8. Who gets priority access to social housing? The local council—but within a national framework. The Housing Act 1996 sets statutory “reasonable preference” categories (homeless households, people in unsanitary conditions, medical need, etc.) that councils must prioritise. Within that, each council designs its own allocation scheme (points, bands, local connection rules). Housing associations set their own policies but usually take nominations from the council’s list.

9. What’s done if someone spreads lies on social media? Mostly not local at all. The platforms themselves make most moderation decisions under their own terms of service. Ofcom, the national regulator, enforces the Online Safety Act 2023—but that mainly targets illegal content and harms to children; ordinary misinformation is largely not covered. The police get involved only if it crosses into a criminal offence (e.g. false communications under the Online Safety Act, harassment, incitement). Defamation is a private civil matter through the courts. The local council has essentially no role.

10. Whether a new high rise in the town centre gets built? The local planning authority—the district or unitary council’s planning committee (or officers under delegated powers)—decides the application, judged against its Local Plan. But the framework is national: the National Planning Policy Framework, and the Secretary of State can “call in” big decisions or overturn refusals on appeal via the Planning Inspectorate. Tall buildings also need Building Safety Regulator approval. So: locally decided, nationally constrained, with Westminster holding the trump card.