Most of England’s mayors do not have enough staff or experience to take on new powers being given to them by Andy Burnham, insiders and experts have told The i Paper.
The Prime Minister has put devolution at the centre of his drive to deliver “growth in every postcode”.
Chancellor John Healey is expected to set out a roadmap for how mayors will gain control of a share of income tax at next month’s Budget.
The Reform MPs who face losing their seats according to new poll
Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman are among four Reform UK MPs who would lose their seats if a general election were held tomorrow, fresh polling by YouGov shows.
Falling behind the Tories
Tory defector Danny Kruger and Sarah Pochin – who beat Labour in a 2025 by-election – would also be unseated, according to the leading UK pollster’s first large-scale election modelling since Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
Although the party’s numbers of MPs would hugely increase, it would have fewer seats than the Tories overall, marking a significant fall when compared to last year’s polling.
How a Labour government could be formed
The poll predicts that Labour would be the biggest party in a hung parliament.
Lib Dem leader Ed Davey recently ruled out forming a coalition with Reform or the Tories but stopped short of excluding a coalition with Labour.
However, to form a Parliamentary majority in this scenario, Burnham would also need to work with the SNP or Plaid Cymru.
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Reform expanding its operations
The polling comes as Reform is preparing a huge expansion of its operations around the country, targeting London, the South East, the South West and the East of England.
- Analysis of Reform job adverts by The i Paper suggests the party is pumping resources into areas where it wants to keep its high-profile Tory defectors.
There’s turmoil in the Liberal Democrats. And MPs are struggling for direction
Stagnant in the polls but still a potential kingmaker, the party’s at a crossroads – even its own members are asking what comes next.
Record number of assaults on Britain’s trains – what to know
Assaults on Britain’s railways have hit record levels, new figures from the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) have revealed.
The numbers
The data published on Thursday showed there were 13,464 reported assaults on people who were not railway workers between April 2025 and March 2026, an increase of 36 per cent compared to the previous year.
- 11,289 assaults on rail workers on mainline networks were also recorded, an increase of 12 per cent. This included 6,390 incidents of verbal abuse, 2,487 physical assaults and 2,412 threats.
Working to make railways safer
No-one on the railway should be subjected to violence, threats or abuse. We’re working with industry and our trade union colleagues to address work-related violence and harassment, including through recent guidance which sets out what we expect from rail employers.
Richard Hines, ORR’s chief inspector railways
Walkers reveals three new crisp flavours
Three new “gold” flavours of Walkers are now available for crisp lovers. The new snacks mark the brand’s biggest revamp in 80 years.
What are the flavours and how much are they?
The new flavours are black truffle, sea salt and olive oil and Somerset mature cheddar and onion.
Each pack is branded as “Premium Potato Crisps”.
The crisps come in 140g bags and can currently be bought for £2 each.
Where you can buy them
The entire range launched on Ocado officially today, but from October 12, they will be widely available in major UK supermarkets for a cheaper price of £1.50.
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It could put them in charge of at least £21.5bn in taxpayers’ cash over the next four years, depending on which mayors are permitted to go ahead with the move and what percentage is allocated, according to research by the think-tank Centre for Cities.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), another think-tank close to Burnham, says mayors should be handed 5 per cent of all income tax raised in their areas.
Burnham’s government has also committed to giving mayors the power to introduce an Overnight Visitor Levy to raise extra cash from tourism.
‘We’re way off being able to handle income tax’
But most mayoral authorities remain relatively new and analysis by The i Paper suggests there is a vast disparity in their capacity to take on such complex responsibilities.
Greater Lincolnshire, which was formed in February 2025 and is led by Reform UK’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns, only had around eight staff until fairly recently, it is understood.
Hull and East Yorkshire, Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, East Midlands, the North East, South Yorkshire, the West of England and York and North Yorkshire all have headcounts between 50 to 500.
By comparison, Sheffield City Council has more than 8,500 employees while HMRC, the UK’s tax authority, has around 69,000 employees.
Mike Ross, the Lib Dem leader of Hull council, said that while he welcomes the Prime Minister’s “commitment to devolution”, there are a number of combined authorities who are “not ready” for all the responsibilities being proposed.
“Certainly in the case of HEYCA [Hull and East Yorkshire Combined Authority] it’s still in a formative stage, it’s still getting people in place, there are things it’s not ready to take on,” he said.
“For something as important as income tax we’re way off.
“If the Government moves responsibilities to combined authorities then they will have to move people and resource as well.”
Oliver Coppard, the mayor for South Yorkshire, said although he wants fiscal powers “as soon as possible”, his authority would not be able to administrate local income tax collection as it stands.
“If the Government gives us the responsibility for collecting and managing that right now it would take a whole load of capacity that we don’t have,” he said.
“No combined authority has that, they might have more people but that [income tax collection] is a specific set of responsibilities and powers.
“It depends what model they [the Government] go with, there’s a world in which the Treasury do the work and then [the tax] is just passed to us.”
Coppard said there is a “live conversation with Government about responsibility versus capacity” but he praised Burnham’s government as understanding the issue better than either previous Tory administrations or that led by Sir Keir Starmer.
“It’s not an easy thing to do to reshape the state and we will keep working with them to deliver,” he added.
Local leaders may ask for mayors to be scrapped
In August, Burnham’s No 10 North announced that it intends to second “high-performing” civil servants out of Whitehall and into mayor authorities in a bid to “build capability”.
Between five and ten civil servants will be sent out for up to nine months in the initial pilot.
But beyond headcount, performance and political stability at mayoralties has also been mixed.
Three of the new authorities – Tees Valley, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, and West of England – have all been the subject of “Best Value” notices from the Government meaning there are serious concerns about governance.
The i Paper revealed this summer how businesses in Humberside are becoming increasingly frustrated by Reform mayors Luke Campbell in Hull and East Yorkshire and Andrea Jenkyns in Greater Lincolnshire due to their position on green industries.
Reform’s hardline policy on the “Net Zero” agenda is “turning away jobs”, one source said.
Councillors have also warned that dissatisfaction with their performance could lead local authority leaders to trigger a clause in the devolution deals that allow the mayoralties to be scrapped in 2028 with approval from central government.
That could mean the Greater Lincolnshire and Hull and East Yorkshire authorities being axed in favour of a mayor for the Humber region.
‘Too many sceptics still think mayors are a waste of taxpayers’ money’
This week’s IPPR report says that “strong safeguards and accountability” are necessary for fiscal devolution to be a success, admitting that one “bad decision or mismanaged funding” from a mayor “risks turning public opinion against devolution and undoing progress everywhere”.
Lord Jim O’Neill, former Treasury minister and adviser to Burnham, is a supporter of fiscal devolution but admits there are still “far too many cynics” who think mayors are “an irrelevance, and a probable source of wasted taxpayers’ money”.
Writing in the IPPR report he says: “The way to respond to these sceptics is to ensure that the most populated areas, with the biggest potential to grow, are at the forefront of devolved powers.
“This is assuming they have the capacity to cope, the desire to be accountable and, of course, just like Greater Manchester has had, the aspiration to be bold.
“It is a simple mathematical fact that, if these areas all start to grow more strongly, the national economy will, by definition, do so as well and this will be to the benefit of all.”
A Government spokesperson said: “We’re rewiring this country so power is put back in the hands of local people where it belongs, not hoarded in Westminster.
“This includes offering the largest package of financial powers ever to English mayors by giving them a share of income tax revenues, so they can invest in what matters most to their community.
“We will publish more detail alongside the Autumn Budget.”