English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: Third Reading

MPs voted on 25 November 2025 to pass the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill at Third Reading, its final stage in the House of Commons. The bill passed by 322 votes to 179. Third Reading is the last opportunity for MPs to accept or reject a bill as a whole before it moves to the House of Lords. The bill represents a significant restructuring of devolved governance in England. It creates a new framework of "strategic authorities" at three tiers and gives mayors new powers over planning, transport, housing and regeneration. It restores the supplementary vote system for mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections, which had been replaced by First Past the Post. It introduces a community right to buy assets of community value, including sports stadiums, and establishes a new Local Audit Office. It also mandates cabinet-style governance for English local councils and bans upwards-only rent review clauses in commercial leases. Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs voted unanimously in favour, providing the bulk of the 322 ayes. Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, and most smaller parties voted against. Five independents voted aye and two voted no. The bill passed earlier report stage divisions on the same day by similar margins, with opposition amendments including New Clause 17 and New Clause 69 defeated by roughly 320 votes to fewer than 200. A recurring tension in debate was whether the bill's grant of ministerial powers to impose reorganisation without local consent sat in tension with its stated devolutionary purpose.