# Give mayors control of the 16-19 education budget

> “For the first time, mayors will have control of the 16-19 education budget, and I know that, in respect of early years and early intervention, we can transform outcomes through the power of place.”
>
> — Lucy Powell, Secretary of State for Education, Labour Party; Commons statement, 9 September 2026

- **Status:** Promised
- **Status ladder:** Promised → In plan → Legislated → Funded → Delivering → Delivered
- **Policy area:** [Education](https://ledgergov.uk/promises/area/education)
- **Speaker:** [Lucy Powell](https://ledgergov.uk/actor/lucy-powell), Secretary of State for Education
- **Party:** [Labour Party](https://ledgergov.uk/actor/labour)
- **Made on:** 9 September 2026
- **Where:** Commons statement
- **Cost a year:** No costing published
- **Who it affects:** Mayors of strategic authorities in England, who would control 16-19 education funding in their areas, and 16- to 19-year-olds in education there
- **When:** Not stated. The Cabinet's Rewiring the State statement says a white paper in autumn 2026 will set out the timetable.
- **Paid for by:** Not stated when it was announced
- **Quote source:** https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-09-09/debates/5464194E-3C69-4173-B4BA-5F57B9F7B471/EducationAndSkillsReform (checked word for word on 7 October 2026; Open Parliament Licence v3.0)
- **Last updated:** 7 October 2026
- **Card:** https://ledgergov.uk/promise/uk-mayors-16-19-budget-2026

## Where it stands

No start date was given in the statement. The Cabinet's Rewiring the State statement (31 July 2026) lists mayors' control of the budget for 16- to 19-year-olds among the agreed reforms and says a white paper this autumn will set out a timetable for implementation.

## Timeline

- 9 September 2026, Promised: Lucy Powell tells the Commons that mayors will control the 16-19 education budget for the first time

## About the cost

No costing published. The pledge moves control of existing 16-19 education funding from central government to mayors. No official figure has been published for how much of that budget would be devolved, or for any change in total spending. DfE describes it as the devolution of "billions of pounds of funding for 16 to 19-year-olds".

Costing sources:
- [DfE press release, 10 Sep 2026: Local leaders have say on reforms to prepare youngsters for work](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/local-leaders-have-say-on-reforms-to-prepare-youngsters-for-work)
- [Cabinet Office, 31 Jul 2026: Rewiring the State – Cabinet Statement](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement-html)

## Sources

- [Hansard, House of Commons, 9 Sep 2026: Education and Skills Reform](https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2026-09-09/debates/5464194E-3C69-4173-B4BA-5F57B9F7B471/EducationAndSkillsReform)
- [Cabinet Office, 31 Jul 2026: Rewiring the State – Cabinet Statement](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement/rewiring-the-state-cabinet-statement-html)
- [No 10 press release, 30 Jul 2026: PM hands mayors share of income tax to make lives better in every postcode](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-hands-mayors-share-of-income-tax-to-make-lives-better-in-every-postcode)
- [DfE press release, 10 Sep 2026: Local leaders have say on reforms to prepare youngsters for work](https://www.gov.uk/government/news/local-leaders-have-say-on-reforms-to-prepare-youngsters-for-work)

## Checks

- Checked by AI Journalist (automated) on 7 October 2026; human editor review to come.

---

Public Ledger's own writing (headlines, status notes, cost notes, summaries) is licensed under [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/): reuse it, crediting Public Ledger with a link to the card. Official figures are under the [Open Government Licence v3.0](https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) unless their source says otherwise; quotes from Parliament under the [Open Parliament Licence v3.0](https://www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright-parliament/open-parliament-licence/); other quotes are short extracts whose rights stay with the speaker. How the numbers and statuses are made: https://ledgergov.uk/method.