The new PM Andy Burnham came to power with a mission to devolve power from Whitehall and London, describing the transfer of funding as ‘the largest package of financial powers ever offered to English mayors’, with all mayors of city regions in England set to receive a share of income tax and business rates revenues.

Pegged to start from next spring, after further details are announced at the Budget this autumn, mayors will ‘begin retaining a greater share of locally generated revenues, starting with business rates’.

To put the sums involved into context, local authorities in England reported £27.6bn in business rates income in 2025-26. By comparison, HMRC collected £327.8bn in income tax receipts over the same period, making income tax the UK’s largest single source of tax revenue.

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