As expected, the newly elected Conservative Government has moved forward with its plans for the decentralisation of powers to cities and regions through its Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill.

The commitment to this is shown in George Osborne's city deal announcement within twenty four hours of the government taking office and two specific Ministers for the Northern Powerhouse.

This redistribution of decision-making authority is something that RICS fully supports, as part of the overall drive to rebalance the economy. In fact, the objectives set out for devolution partly mirror RICS' own vision for a ‘bigger than local, smaller than national' approach to economic development.