Accountability matters: Securing the future of devolution

England’s new mayors will join a group of highly visible leaders. But large-scale mayoral authorities are unfamiliar in England, and they will need to establish their credibility and legitimacy with the electorate. 

It is a commonplace in commentary on English devolution that mayors need to be ‘accountable’ or ‘held to account’. Yet it is hard to determine what ‘accountability’ comprises, or how to know when a decision-maker has been ‘held to account’. 

There is no shortage of governance procedures operating in the name of ‘accountability’. It is less clear whether they are sufficient to assuage fears of mayors misusing power, or whether these procedures can create a sense of ownership and influence for voters. In this paper we set out proposals for how to deliver on improved accountability.