(04 Apr 2022, 5:51 pm)Adrian wrote It's not as simplistic as that unfortunately. The North East combined authority is a huge and diverse area to serve, so the devolution deal has to be right in terms of funding. The last deal on the table was only worth £30m a year over 30 years, despite additional responsibilities and without any consideration for things like inflation. NECA would have been responsible to either borrow or find additional funding themselves (including through taxation).

This was knocked back in a devolution referendum in 2004, so the question of who would be the mayor is way down the priorities list, if we're going to put something to residents 18 years later.

I suspect that devolution will move at pace once the local elections are over in May - of course, Durham are going their own way ..........