Luton Backs a Mayor for Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes

Luton Council has written to the Government asking for an elected mayor covering Luton, Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes.

The letter went in last week and was announced on 27 August. The council says a strategic authority on that footprint, known as BLMK, “gives us the best opportunity to unlock the potential of our area”, and that it is “supportive of a mayoral model”.

The four councils have asked for this before. They were turned down, and the reason is on the record.

What the Government said last time

In October 2025 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government laid its annual report on English devolution before Parliament. Twenty-nine councils across ten areas had applied to join the Devolution Priority Programme, the fast-track route to a mayor. Six areas were taken forward: Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Norfolk and Suffolk, Greater Essex, Sussex and Brighton, and Hampshire and the Solent.

Paragraph 3.4 deals with everyone else, and it names Luton:

The remaining councils, Somerset, Wiltshire, Dorset, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole, West Northamptonshire, North Northamptonshire, Bedford, Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes, Kent County and Medway Councils were unsuccessful in their applications, due to not sufficiently meeting the Government’s English Devolution White Paper criteria and requirements on governance.

The report adds that “conversations with these areas are ongoing”. The section it appears in is headed “Areas that have submitted proposals for a Strategic Authority but where agreement has not yet been reached”.

That is the gap between the council’s announcement and the published position. Luton’s news release says “the Government has already identified BLMK as the proposed area for this work”. The most recent Government document to name these councils records a refusal on governance grounds, and no agreement since.

Would Luton Borough Council still exist?

This is the question the announcement does not answer, and the clearest published answer comes from one of the other three councils.

Milton Keynes City Council debated devolution at Full Council on 18 June 2025 and carried a motion setting out its position in detail. Point 2(i) of the resolution says that under a BLMK strategic mayoral combined authority:

the existing local authorities in the BLMK region will continue to function as separate sovereign unitary local councils with their existing statutory functions, and devolution should bring new or enhanced powers, freedoms and flexibilities drawn down from central government.

So on Milton Keynes’ reading, this is a layer above the four councils rather than a merger of them. Luton Borough Council would keep collecting your council tax, emptying your bins and deciding your planning applications. A mayor would sit above it holding powers handed down from Whitehall.

Luton Council has not published its own statement on that point. We asked no one, and we are not guessing: the borough council’s release is silent on what happens to the borough council.

Where the other three stand

Milton Keynes is the most explicit. Its June 2025 motion agreed that BLMK is its preferred devolution option, and instructed its Cabinet not to enter discussions with any other combination of authorities “unless told formally by government that a BLMK region would not be agreed”.

Its reasoning is worth reading if you live in Luton, because much of it is about Luton’s own assets. The motion lists the region’s “nationally significant projects, including Universal Studios UK, the expansion of London Luton airport and a number of potential next generation New Towns”. It notes that the BLMK footprint matches the existing NHS integrated care board and the local travel-to-work area.

Bedford Borough Council and Central Bedfordshire Council have published no equivalent current statement. We read both councils’ news pages on 31 August and neither carries a devolution item at all. Their positions are the thing to watch, because the last bid failed on governance, which in practice means the four councils could not agree.

The money claim

Luton’s release carries one large number: that the BLMK economy could be worth an additional £52 billion by 2035.

Read the condition attached to it. The council attributes the figure to analysis by Metro Dynamics, and says it applies “if the region returns to its pre-pandemic rate of economic growth, supported by greater local control over skills and investment”. It is a projection contingent on a growth rate the area is not currently achieving, not a sum of money on offer. The underlying Metro Dynamics analysis has not been published on the council’s website, so the workings cannot be checked.

What happens next

The council says further detail on fiscal devolution is expected from Government in the autumn, and that it “will look closely at the detail of any proposed settlement”.

The legal machinery is already in place. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 received Royal Assent this year and sets the framework for strategic authorities and mayors. What it does not do is decide which areas get one. That is a matter for the Secretary of State, and for whether the four councils can now agree something they could not agree in 2025.

What it means for you

Nothing changes for any council service this year. No mayoral election has been called for this area, no strategic authority has been established, and no settlement has been agreed.

What has happened is that Luton has restated a preference, in writing, for the same grouping the Government last recorded as unsuccessful. Two things are worth watching. The first is whether Bedford and Central Bedfordshire say the same thing in public. The second is what the autumn fiscal devolution announcement contains. If a mayor does arrive on this footprint, Luton would be one voice of four in choosing them.

Councillor Tahmina Saleem, the leader of Luton Council, said: “We already have strong partnerships across Bedfordshire and Milton Keynes, and devolution gives us the opportunity to build on that collaboration and make the most of the economic strengths of our area.”

Council decisions that affect your bill are in Luton council tax bands, and development in the borough is covered in Luton planning news.

Sources

• Luton Council backs BLMK footprint for future devolution, Luton Borough Council, 27 August 2026, for the letter to Government, the mayoral model, the £52 billion Metro Dynamics figure, the autumn timing and the quotes from Councillor Saleem.
• Secretary of State’s Annual Report on English Devolution 2024-25, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, laid before Parliament on 14 October 2025, for paragraph 3.4, the six successful areas and the section heading quoted above.
• Motion 2, Devolution, Milton Keynes City Council, decided at Council on 18 June 2025, for the resolution that existing councils continue as separate sovereign unitary authorities, the preferred-option decision and the reasoning on the ICB, travel-to-work area and named projects.
• English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, for the statutory framework.