Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department plans to take to ensure that new Mayors are accountable to their local areas.

Within Mayoral Combined Authorities and Mayoral Combined County Authorities there is an existing system of accountability and scrutiny arrangements. This system ensures that public spending is achieving value for money.

In the English Devolution White Paper the government set out how it plans to go further and the government’s commitment to strengthening the accountability and scrutiny arrangements of Mayors and the Combined Authorities as greater powers, duties and resources are devolved.