The Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority Regulations 2026 put into law a new strategic authority covering Hampshire County Council, Isle of Wight Council, Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council. Made on 3 June 2026, most provisions take effect on 4 June 2026, while Part 5, which contains the mayoral functions, is deferred until 8 May 2028. That staging is significant. It means the institution is created now, with governance and transport arrangements able to begin at once, but the strongest executive powers do not switch on until the first directly elected mayor takes office. The instrument extends to England and Wales as legislation, although the authority itself applies only to this English area.
The Regulations sit under a broad set of powers in the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, alongside the Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014. The Secretary of State records that the statutory conditions for establishing a combined county authority are met, that the change is likely to improve economic, social and environmental well-being, and that due regard has been given to effective local government and local identity. The instrument also states that a public consultation was carried out. The process set out in the preamble matters as much as the substance. Hampshire County Council, Isle of Wight Council, Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council all consented to the Regulations, the Secretary of State laid the required report before Parliament, and both Houses approved the draft. In practical terms, the new body rests on the standard devolution route created by the 2023 Act: local consent, parliamentary approval and a specific transfer of functions through secondary legislation.
Regulation 3 establishes the Combined County Authority as a body corporate. The schedule then sets the initial constitution. Each constituent council appoints one elected member, with Hampshire County Council appointing one additional elected member, giving five constituent members before the mayoral model begins. Each appointed member must also have a named substitute, and the authority may make its own constitution and standing orders so long as they remain consistent with the schedule. Before the first mayor takes office, the authority must appoint a chair and a vice-chair from among its members. Those posts are temporary. They fall away at the end of 7 May 2028, because from 8 May 2028 the mayor becomes chair under the wider statutory framework. The authority may also include up to five non-constituent and associate members, which allows partner representation without opening the structure too widely.
The voting rules are designed to protect constituent councils during the pre-mayor phase. No business can be transacted unless the chair, or the vice-chair acting in place, and three constituent members are present. The budget, the local transport plan, the constitution or standing orders, and any other plan named in the constitution or standing orders all require unanimity among the five constituent members. Decisions that create a financial liability for a council, affect land in its area or involve functions exercised in its area also need that council member's approval. After the mayor's term begins, the system changes. A simple majority remains the standard rule, but the majority must include the mayor, or the deputy mayor acting in place, and no meeting may proceed without the mayor or deputy mayor plus at least four constituent members. Each member has one vote, there is no casting vote, and a tied vote fails. The result is a shift from a consent-based joint governance model to a mayor-led combined authority model.
The first election for the mayor is set for 4 May 2028, with the first term beginning on 8 May 2028. Subsequent elections are to take place every fourth year on the ordinary day of election for county and district councillors in England. The instrument also deals with weekends, bank holidays and days of public thanksgiving or mourning so that the statutory start and end of a mayoral term remain operable. The mayor may appoint one political adviser, employed by the authority, but that appointment cannot outlast the mayor's own term. The post is treated as politically restricted under the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. That follows an established local government pattern: the elected office-holder may receive political advice, but the appointment is tightly tied to that office and does not become a permanent addition to the institution.
Transport is the main policy field addressed by the transfer of functions. Under regulation 8, functions under section 63 of the Transport Act 1985 in relation to passenger transport become exercisable by the Combined County Authority concurrently with the constituent councils, but only with the consent of each council in whose area the power is to be used. The larger shift concerns local transport planning. From 4 June 2026 until 8 May 2028, the authority shares the functions in sections 108, 109 and 112 of the Transport Act 2000 with the constituent councils. After 8 May 2028, those functions move to the Combined County Authority instead of the councils, and regulation 11 then makes them mayor-only functions. The effect is a phased transfer: joint planning first, followed by a single strategic transport voice once the mayoral model starts.
The same logic is applied to funding. Regulation 10 gives the Combined County Authority the section 31 grant-making power in the Local Government Act 2003, exercisable concurrently with a Minister of the Crown, in relation to the area. Where the authority decides grants for a constituent council's highway functions, it must consider whether that council will have sufficient funds for effective delivery and must take account of other funding sources already available. From 8 May 2028, regulation 11 makes this grant power, so far as conferred by regulation 10, exercisable only by the mayor. Members and officers may assist, and the mayor may use the authority's general power under section 49 of the 2023 Act when exercising those functions. Regulation 12 also allows joint arrangements with the authority, constituent councils and other local authorities. In administrative terms, the Regulations place transport planning and related grant decisions in one elected office while preserving formal routes for joint working.
The financial model is more restrained than the executive model. The constituent councils must meet the costs reasonably attributable to the authority's functions, and must also meet expenditure reasonably incurred by the mayor in exercising mayor-only functions unless the mayor chooses to use other authority resources. Those costs are to be apportioned by agreement or, failing agreement, by resident population using official estimates. There are safeguards around mayoral spending. If council contributions are being used, the mayor must agree the total expenditure in advance with the authority, and without that agreement the expenditure cannot be incurred. Any precept issued for that expenditure is disregarded for the purpose of calculating the councils' contributions. The Regulations also make transitional audit provision by disapplying the statement of accounts requirement for the financial year beginning 1 April 2025 and modifying it for 2026-27 so the new body reports only for the period after it legally exists.
Beyond transport, the instrument gives the authority a wider but still defined operating brief. It can exercise certain Crime and Disorder Act 1998 information-sharing functions concurrently with the constituent councils and is treated as a relevant authority for disclosure purposes. It is also treated like a local authority for publishing information and for bringing or defending legal proceedings. For economic development and regeneration, it can use the Localism Act 2011 general power of competence concurrently with the constituent councils, and in some cases a council's statutory requirement can be met through the authority's use of that power. The schedule fills in the remaining governance detail. Most members are not to receive remuneration beyond travel and subsistence, although limited allowances are permitted for the mayor, some deputy mayors, scrutiny members and audit members, subject to an independent remuneration panel and pension rules. According to the explanatory note, no full regulatory impact assessment has been prepared because government does not expect costs for business or the voluntary sector. The government's stated case is that public sector savings should come from operational efficiency. For Hampshire and the Solent, the immediate result is a new devolution institution from June 2026, followed by a sharper concentration of transport and funding authority once the first mayor takes office in May 2028.