Should the UK move more power to the regions, using the success of areas like Manchester as a model? | refnation

GovernanceNational27 Jun → 4 JulClosed · Final

Should the UK move more power to the regions, using the success of areas like Manchester as a model?

Yes 57%No 43%35 votes cast

Manchester has operated under a directly elected mayor and combined authority since 2017, with powers over transport, housing, adult education and some health services. Devolution deals have since expanded to other areas including the West Midlands, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire. Proponents of further regionalisation argue that local decision-making has delivered faster progress on projects such as Metrolink expansion and brownfield housing development.

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Devolution scraped a win, 57% to 43%, on 35 votes — a clear but hardly emphatic verdict, the kind of margin that reflects a chamber persuaded rather than converted. This was not a rout in either direction; it was Yes doing just enough.

The real story is generational. Voters aged 25-34, by far the largest bloc here with 17 votes, backed more power for the regions by nearly two to one (65%). Strip them out and the rest of the sample tilts the other way — the 55-64s split 2-3 against, and the small clutch of over-65s leaned no too, with only one Yes among three. It is the young-adult vote that carried Manchester's model over the line.

That pattern tracks a familiar fault line in English governance debates: enthusiasm for devolved, city-region power tends to cluster among younger, urban-leaning voters who came of age watching Manchester's mayoralty and Metrolink expansion, while older voters remain more instinctively Westminster-centric. Men here were also somewhat keener than women (62% versus an even split), though with only six female voters that gap wants treating carefully.

A win for the "Manchester model", then, but one built on a single demographic pillar rather than a broad coalition.

LeftCentreRight

ZiaSarkar· 54
The Early Left Skeptic57% · Coin Flip
YES
B
BPG· 57
THE PRACTICAL PATRIOT61% · Coin Flip
NO
octtava6064· 52
THE RECONCILER71% · In Step
YES
Ryryster· 39
THE CONSENSUS REBEL69% · In Step
YES
pompom· 114
The Polymath58% · Coin Flip
YES
J
JKyran· 54
THE PUBLIC BUILDER74% · In Step
YES
RoryAdams· 67
THE REDISTRIBUTIVE HAWK72% · In Step
NO
AxelGurtner· 59
61% · Coin Flip
NO
AlexLancaster· 49
65% · In Step
YES
01johnsa· 43
An unclassified skeptic with opinions on everything65% · In Step
YES
ChelseaForever· 51
The Consensus Voter69% · In Step
NO
R
RobbyJacques· 46
66% · In Step
YES
kbbakes312· 112
The Sceptical Realist63% · Coin Flip
NO
N
NottsOxon· 92
The Redistribution Vanguard57% · Coin Flip
YES
scottybailey81· 149
The Welfare Disciplinarian70% · In Step
NO
C
crooner· 2925
The Constituent79% · In Step
NO
L
Lwm101· 31
65% · In Step
NO
M
mpwban· 186
The Rearmed Statist57% · Coin Flip
YES
BlackLivesMatter· 43
The Redistributive Hardliner51% · Coin Flip
YES
F
Flipflops· 3177
The Reformist Traditionalist68% · In Step
YES

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