Vikki Slade MP says a Wessex mayor will be elected in 2028, after a summer bid to cut the deal to Dorset and BCP alone. Read the MPs' June letter here.
Vikki Slade, the Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole, says the Government has confirmed that Wessex will get a Strategic Authority, with a mayor elected in 2028. It would cover BCP, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire councils.
She also says the deal nearly fell apart in the summer, when an alternative plan for an authority covering only Dorset Council and BCP Council was put to ministers. Her office has shared the letter she and eight other MPs sent to the devolution minister about it in June, and we publish it below.
Her office described the confirmation as coming today, 28 October. By late morning no announcement had appeared on GOV.UK or among the day’s written statements to Parliament. The last public step was a week ago, when the Prime Minister said yes to a Wessex mayor at Prime Minister’s Questions on 21 October. We will add the Government’s own announcement when it is published.
“Fantastic that the Government has finally confirmed”
Ms Slade was Leader of BCP Council before she was elected to Parliament, and says she helped start the project.
“I was pleased to convene the councils back in 2023 to start discussions on what became the Heart of Wessex proposal, and it is fantastic that the Government has finally confirmed that the Wessex area, covering BCP, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire councils, will be getting a Strategic Authority with a Mayor elected in 2028,” she said.
“It was frustrating that Wessex was not included in the first wave of devolution deals in 2025, but the hard work of all four councils, together with the commitment of so many MPs across the region, has paid off.”
She said the authority would bring money and powers the area has gone without. “The Strategic Authority will provide funding opportunities that have been denied to our communities while other areas have benefited from devolved powers and investment.
“Where challenges cross council boundaries, it is right that decisions are made locally rather than in Westminster. That is exactly what this new arrangement will help achieve.”
The summer plan for a Dorset and BCP authority
“We nearly lost this in the summer when we learned of an alternative proposal for a foundation authority covering only Dorset Council and BCP Council,” Ms Slade said.
“Not only would that have left Wiltshire and Somerset without a Strategic Authority, but a foundation authority would not have had the powers or access to funding needed to deliver meaningful change. It would have created bureaucracy without the benefits.
“I raised my concerns directly with ministers at the time because I believed it would have undermined the democratic decisions already taken by all four councils. I am pleased that the Government has chosen to ignore that attempt and instead back the full Wessex proposal.”
The letter is dated 19 June 2026 and addressed to Nesil Caliskan, the devolution minister at the time. It was signed by nine MPs whose seats sit inside the Wessex area: Vikki Slade, Edward Morello (West Dorset), Gideon Amos (Taunton and Wellington), Adam Dance (Yeovil), Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton), Sarah Gibson (Chippenham), Brian Mathew (Melksham and Devizes), Anna Sabine (Frome and East Somerset) and Roz Savage (South Cotswolds).
They wrote that until the day before, they had understood Wessex was approved to go ahead as a Foundation Strategic Authority and would be announced in the next wave “on Monday 22nd”. They said they had then learned that a Labour MP with a constituency inside the Wessex area had been “campaigning privately, using his position as a PPS, to undermine the Wessex proposal and to instead promote a BCP and Dorset Council authority”. The letter does not name him. A PPS, or parliamentary private secretary, is an MP who acts as an unpaid aide to a minister.
The MPs called the idea “entirely inappropriate” and said it did not have the support of the councils. The letter also sets out their case for the larger area:
- the four councils share an NHS integrated care board area and an ambulance service;
- Dorset and Wiltshire share a fire and rescue service;
- the area formed part of the Western Gateway transport group;
- council working groups calculated that residents had “missed out on over £300million in potential funding” by being left out of the earlier waves.
That £300 million figure is the councils’ own estimate.
The question in the Commons
On 13 July Ms Slade raised the same concern during Commons questions on local government reorganisation:
“As the right hon. Member for Salisbury (John Glen) mentioned, there is a very wild rumour in Wessex that a Labour MP has undermined the four councils against the will of the councils, which have been democratically elected, and without discussing it with any of the MPs. Apparently, the Wessex combined authority, which was ready to go, is not happening. Is the Minister able to deny this rumour today, so that I can reassure my councils?”
The minister, Alison McGovern, did not answer it directly. “I could spend all my time at this Dispatch Box confirming or denying rumours, but I think I would be here until Thursday if I did that,” she replied, according to Hansard.
Ms Slade said she had kept pressing ministers after that. “I wrote to the Minister in the summer asking for this to be progressed and was assured that the plans remained on track.
“I have been committed to this project from the very beginning because I believe our area deserves the same opportunities for investment and growth that other parts of the country already enjoy.
“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward, and I look forward to seeing Wessex and my constituents benefit from the investment, powers and opportunities that devolution can bring.”
What it means for you
A Wessex mayor would not replace your council. The four councils have said each would stay a separate council, still emptying bins and running schools; the mayor would hold powers and money handed down from Whitehall, mainly on transport, housing, skills and growth.
If the 2028 date stands, Dorset and BCP residents would get a vote for the first Wessex mayor that year. The Government has not yet published a deal, a timetable or an election date of its own. We will report them when it does.
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