PLANS to devolve a raft of powers from government to Hampshire’s civic chiefs will be debated by councillors in Southampton tonight.

An extraordinary meeting of the city council takes place at the Civic Centre at 6pm, with Conservative ministers set to make an announcement on Hampshire’s bid in the New Year.

As previously revealed in the Chronicle, the bid submitted by the county’s 19 council leaders, local enterprise partnerships and national park authorities aims to grab control over major investment from Whitehall.

The detailed bid, submitted in September, sees plans to improve transport and skills, create new jobs and homes and boost broadband.

Council leader Simon Letts said the county’s leaders had held meetings with Secretary of State for Local Government Greg Clark who was “positive” and had described Hampshire as a “frontrunner” for a deal.

He said two issues needed to be clarified before government approval was granted – whether Hampshire should have a directly-elected mayor, and that the government wanted the county to commit to building more homes.

Ahead of today’s meeting, he said “the purpose of the meeting is to inform Southampton’s commitment to the devolution principle and, via a debate, make sure there is a consensus where there can be for housing and governance.”

Conservative opposition leader Jeremy Moulton said he is “broadly supportive” of devolution, describing it as a “real opportunity for the whole of Hampshire to take greater control over the county and the services provided”.

He added: “The real area of complexity and uncertainty is governance – you’ve got lots of different parties trying to work together and have their own goals, but how they work together requires quite a lot of thought.

“The objective should be that nothing ever comes to a vote and everything is done collaboratively. I think we need to find a model that allows us to do the same thing as the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire - it should be about achieving goals, not competing with each other.”

He said tackling congestion and rail issues would be among the top priorities for a new combined authority, while adding that a directly-elected mayor had “merit”.

However other councillors are sceptical, with independent anti-cuts councillor Keith Morrell saying he is “not convinced that it will make a great deal of difference to the extent of which the city is going to be able to maintain its services”.

He said he sees it as an “attempt by the government to offload responsibilities onto counties without ensuring there is adequate funding”.

Independent English Futures councillor Andrew Pope said he had concerns, describing it as a “smokescreen for cuts to public services that Labour are once again supporting”.

He added: “The people of Southampton should decide with a constitutional convention and a referendum - not a rushed, shoddy backroom stitch-up by self-appointed politicians who haven’t bothered to ask local people.

“Instead they make bogus and vague claims about what Tory devolution will deliver - it won’t.”