GREATER Manchester will vote for its first elected mayor on 4 May 2017, the government has announced.
Tony Lloyd is expected to contest the 2017 election proper with current Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese
Forming part of the region’s devolution deal, which includes control locally over several billions of pounds of spending on health, transport and housing, the government stated a new elected mayor means 'local people will know who is responsible, and will be able to hold them to account through the ballot box.’
Northern Powerhouse minister James Wharton said:
“Building a Northern powerhouse is central to our plans to rebalance the economy – key to that is handing powers back to local areas.
“Greater Manchester are leading the way and on 4 May 2017 local people will have a direct say over who they want to run their city-region.
“Six other areas have already signed devolution deals, and with our change in the law to devolve even more powers from Westminster, I’m confident many other areas will soon follow suit.”
Mr Wharton this week laid an order in Parliament to enable elections for the Greater Manchester mayor to go ahead – the first move under the new Cities and Local Government Devolution Act.
Following the 2017 election, the next mayoral election will take place in May 2020 and then every 4 years.
Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd has taken on the role of interim mayor. He is expected to contest the 2017 election proper with current Manchester City Council leader Sir Richard Leese.
Meanwhile, local leaders from the North East, Tees Valley, Sheffield, the West Midlands, Liverpool and Cornwall have taken lead from Greater Manchester and are currently in the process of agreeing new devolution deals with the government.
