Making Devolution Work for Food

Devolution is changing where decisions are made in England. As new Strategic Authorities take shape and existing Combined Authorities gain powers and responsibilities, food partnerships are increasingly asking a practical question: where does food fit?

But there’s another side to that question. As Strategic Authorities develop plans for stronger economies, healthier communities, environmental improvement and more resilient places, local food partnerships are there as allies: they don't need to build their understanding of local food systems from scratch.

Across the Sustainable Food Places network, food partnerships hold vital intelligence about how their local food systems work: the assets, organisations, businesses and communities within them; where opportunities are emerging; where the system is getting stuck; and where intervention could make a difference. They hold trusted relationships across sectors that can be difficult to recreate.

That makes food partnerships valuable strategic partners in devolution. The opportunity is to connect their knowledge, relationships and practical experience with the powers, investment and convening capacity emerging at Strategic Authority level – and together pursue better health, social, environmental and economic outcomes from our food system.

Today, Sustainable Food Places launches Making Devolution Work for Food a new toolkit developed with Elta Smith of Root & Reason, Chair of the Food Ethics Council, to help partnerships navigate that opportunity.

The guide (which you can find in the FOOD PARTNERSHIP TOOLKIT at the top right of the SFP website) starts from a simple reality: there is no single devolved ‘food power’. Food cuts across economic development, health, planning, skills, climate, rural affairs, procurement and resilience. That can make the devolution landscape difficult to navigate but it also creates multiple routes for action.

The toolkit does some of that navigation for food partnerships. It identifies specific powers and levers that can contribute to food systems change, distinguishes between those already demonstrated in practice, those beginning to emerge and opportunities yet to be tested, and brings together examples from across England.

The toolkit explores how different Strategic Authorities have different powers, priorities and political contexts. The opportunity for food partnerships is to understand that context and ask: what is this authority trying to achieve, how could food contribute, and what could we achieve together?

That might mean connecting food and farming to regional economic growth and skills; using planning to shape healthier food environments; convening anchor institutions around procurement; investing in food infrastructure; or strengthening regional resilience. And sometimes the relevant lever will still sit with a local authority or national government rather than at regional level.

This matters because food partnerships already understand how food connects across systems. As England becomes increasingly decentralised, there is an opportunity to put that expertise to work at nested local, regional and national scales – connecting local intelligence and action with the structures increasingly shaping investment, policy and place.  As we've explored in a separate blog, there are emergent examples of what this looks like in the longest standing CMA, Greater Manchester.  There are also food partnerships exploring this thinking in anticipation of devolution, such as the Sussex Alliance of Food Partnerships.

At our SFP launch webinar on 24th Sept, we'll explore the toolkit with Elta and hear directly from George Richmond, Strategy & Policy Officer, Food & Farming at York & North Yorkshire Combined Authority, and Elaine Morgan, Principal Strategy Officer at Greater Manchester Combined Authority, about how food and farming are showing up in their different regional contexts. There'll also be space to discuss what all of this means in practice for food partnerships.

Join us to explore the levers, learn from emerging practice and think about how food partnerships and Strategic Authorities can work together in England's evolving devolved landscape.