Greater Manchester mayoral elections set to take place in May 2017

The order from communities secretary Greg Clark provides for there to be a mayor for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and for the first mayoral election to take place on 4 May 2017. The order is the first to come forward under a new power introduced by the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act, which received royal assent last month.

Under the Greater Manchester devolution agreement agreed in November 2014, the mayor will have strategic planning powers, including "the power to create a statutory spatial strategy". The mayor will also control a new £300 million housing investment fund, which is proposed to help deliver 15,000 new homes in the area over the next 10 years.

According to Clark's order, the new mayor will hold office until a second election in May 2020, with subsequent elections to take place every four years.

The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act provides for powers to be transferred from central government to combined authorities that choose to put an elected mayor in place. GMCA was the first combined authority to sign a devolution agreement with the government. Deals have since been agreed in principle for the Sheffield City Region, the West Midlands, the Liverpool City Region and two north east regions and a deal has been proposed to the government by the councils of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

Planning expert Emma Cottam of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The GMCA mayoral election announcement, which comes only weeks after the Cities and Local Government Devolution Act received royal assent, is a clear sign that it is full steam ahead for the 'northern powerhouse'. With other major northern cities seemingly hot on Manchester’s trail and ready to sign devolution agreements, we will have to wait to understand how chancellor George Osborne’s original hope for the northern powerhouse - that no 'model of local power will be the same' - will materialise."

"The future for the decentralisation of planning powers away from Whitehall will likely become clearer post May 2017," said Cottam. "It will certainly be interesting to see how the strategic planning powers afforded to the GMCA mayor will deliver the regeneration and development of both the wider Greater Manchester area, and of the individual cities themselves that comprise the GMCA."