English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill Report Stage: New Clause 2

MPs voted on 24 November 2025 on New Clause 2 to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, a Conservative amendment that would have required mayoral combined authorities and combined county authorities to follow the same council tax referendum rules as the majority of county and unitary councils. Under those rules, raising a mayoral precept above a set threshold would require a public referendum. The amendment was defeated by 318 votes to 158. The vote matters because it determines whether mayors in England face a formal, statutory cap on their power to raise the council tax precept they charge residents, or whether they remain free to set that precept subject only to the scrutiny of elections. If passed, the amendment would have tied mayoral precept increases to the same referendum principles that constrain most county and unitary councils, meaning voters could trigger a vote if rises exceeded a government-set threshold. Its defeat leaves mayors without that additional constraint, preserving their discretion over precept levels within the broader devolution framework the Bill creates. The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 278 Labour MPs and 29 Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted backed the government and opposed the amendment. All 91 Conservative MPs who voted, all 58 Liberal Democrats, all 6 Reform UK MPs, and all 3 Democratic Unionist Party members who voted supported the amendment. The Greens voted with the government. The vote sits within a wider series of divisions on the same Bill across 24 and 25 November 2025, in which opposition amendments were consistently defeated by similar margins.