In 1982 the Party drafted a piece of legislation which would, if put into practice, establish a devolved Wessex regional government. This document, titled The Statute of Wessex, has been used as a reference text ever since. A full copy is stored in our regionalist texts archive.
Today, Wessex Regionalists agree that, while the text may merit updating for the 21st Century, its basic framework remains relevant. In particular, Articles 15 and 16 – setting out the distribution of powers – remain de facto policy of the Party.
Fully devolved powers
Article 15 stipulates that the following legislative and executive powers would be devolved to Wessex (for reference, areas in which some limited powers are currently devolved to certain Combined Authorities are in bold):
- Local government: designation of areas, allocation of functions, financial provision.
- Housing and environmental services: water, sewerage, refuse disposal, public health services, land drainage and coast protection, parks and pleasure grounds
- Social welfare
- Education, the Arts and Sport, Libraries and Museums
- Town and country planning
- Tourism
- The Fire Service
- The magistracy: appointments; Magistrates Courts and County Courts: administration.
- Prisons and detention centres.
Five further powers would also be devolved, with provision for inter-regional co-operation where necessary:
- Health: hospitals; G.P. Services, dentistry, auxiliary services, local health services
- Roads and road transport
- Agriculture, forestry and food
- Police
- Administrative tribunals
Shared powers
Article 16 lists functions where legislative and executive powers would be shared between Wessex and the U.K. central government:
- Industry and trade: economic planning, location of industry, regional aid, energy policy and investment by public corporations.
- Rail, sea and air transport, inland waterways.
- Employment services, including vocational training.
- Fisheries and exploitation of Continental Shelf.
- Radio and television.
- Civil defence.
Why these powers?
At first glance, this list may appear ambitious. In reality, it reflects functions which are already exercised by other devolved administrations such as Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, and London. Many services are already organised at regional scale in practice. They are often too large to be effectively managed by local authorities, yet too granular for central government to oversee efficiently.
Examples include:
- Water services, which follow river catchments rather than administrative boundaries
- Ambulance services, currently split between the South Western and South Central regions
- Rail operators, such as Great Western and South Western services, which function on a regional basis
From metro-mayors to regional government
The devolution of powers to metro-mayors – including recent proposals to allow them to spend a proportion of income tax revenue, could represent a step toward regionalisation in the United Kingdom.
However, Wessex Regionalists maintain that existing metro-mayor regions are not large enough to manage the full range of services required for meaningful devolution – nor to rebalance power effectively away from Westminster and Whitehall. The lack of legislative powers, and the concentration of executive powers in a single individual, constitutes a significant barrier towards true devolution.
Nonetheless, if metro-mayoral plans continue to advance, Wessex Regionalists would support collaboration between the region’s metro-mayors as an interim step toward full regional governance.
A phased approach
A Wessex Assembly could begin by taking control of services that are already regional in operation, before progressively acquiring further powers from central government.
Devolution should therefore be understood not as a single transfer of authority, but as a gradual and structured process—one that aligns political power with the real geography of public services.