Devolution in the East: we can’t afford to miss our moment.

Carli Harper

Co-Founder, Devo Agency

23/02/2026

The East of England has waited a long time for devolution to become real. Across the region, there is no shortage of economic potential, innovation or ambition, but for too long, the power to shape our future has sat elsewhere. I work with businesses across our region every day, and I see this challenge up close across the East: businesses, councils and communities ready to move faster, but held back by a lack of joined-up decision making.

The East is large, diverse and complex, from cities and ports to market towns, coast and countryside. No single place faces the same challenges, and no single model of governance will work everywhere. That’s exactly why devolution must be flexible, people-centred and grounded in the realities of place.

Full disclosure: I happen to also be the Labour mayoral candidate for Norfolk & Suffolk. That gives me a very personal stake in this conversation. I live in Norfolk, and I have deep family connections to Suffolk. As a region, we have huge strengths but also distinct pressures: travel disconnection, fragile connectivity, coastal erosion, skills gaps and communities that too often feel overlooked by national decision-making.

The delay to mayoral elections until 2028 is frustrating. But it shouldn’t mean losing momentum. In fact, it sharpens the question we should be asking now: what should devolution actually deliver for people who live and work here?

As in the country as a whole, across Norfolk and Suffolk, and the wider East, there is a growing sense of political frustration. We are home to more than a dozen Nationally Significant Infrastructure Projects or NSIPs, this is a source of pride but also huge discontent. Pride at the opportunity infrastructure investment offers, but matched with discontent at the sense that this is happening to us, and not with us. That frustration is increasingly being channelled into protest and anti-system politics. 

Devolution gives us a chance to respond differently. Not with louder rhetoric or more centralised control, but by putting people properly at the centre of decision-making. Done well, devolution can rebuild trust - through shared power, honesty about trade-offs, and a clear focus on delivery.

Nowhere is that more important than in clean energy. The East of England, and Norfolk and Suffolk in particular, are already doing much of the heavy lifting for the UK’s energy transition. Too often, communities experience this as something imposed on them. Devolution offers the chance to turn that around: linking clean energy investment to skilled jobs, opportunities for young people, and real improvements in community infrastructure.

Good devolution in Norfolk & Suffolk won’t be about creating another layer of governance. It will be about removing barriers, aligning effort across newly re-organised unitary councils and partners, and making progress people can see in their everyday lives. As both a devolution practitioner and a local candidate, I’m clear on one thing: this is a moment to do politics differently - and to make devolution work for the people and places of the East.