Reading will help elect a Thames Valley mayor in 2028 after the Budget backed a new authority. What it would run, and what stays with the council.
Reading is set to help elect a Thames Valley mayor in 2028. The government named the region in Wednesday’s Budget as one of ten areas close to a devolution agreement.
The new mayoral strategic authority would cover Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Swindon. It would take on transport, housing, skills and investment across all three. Reading Borough Council would keep running the services residents use every day.
What the Budget said
The Budget 2026 document says the government is “in the final stages of agreeing 10 new devolution agreements”. Eight of them are mayoral strategic authorities:
- Devon, Plymouth and Torbay
- Hertfordshire
- Lancashire
- Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland
- Stoke and Staffordshire
- Surrey
- Thames Valley (Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Swindon)
- Wessex
Kent and Medway and Cornwall make up the ten. The Treasury says the wave will give more than 90% of England’s population a devolution agreement.
Reading Borough Council said the announcement came with a proposed £9.1 million for the Thames Valley from the government’s new Good Growth Funds, to invest in growth while the authority is set up. The Budget document does not list allocations by area. It sets aside £120 million in 2027-28 of “incubator capital” for areas still moving towards a strategic authority.
Thirteen councils, one geography
Which places would be in it was not settled until this week. On 26 October the leaders of 13 councils wrote to the devolution minister, Jim McMahon. They said a meeting on 21 October had given “the clarity requested on the geography acceptable to government”.
The letter admits the leaders do not all agree. “You heard a range of principled views on the best geography for the region when we met,” it says. But they chose to go ahead on Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Swindon, so as not to “lose the opportunity”.
The 13 signatories lead:
- Reading, Bracknell Forest, Slough, West Berkshire, Wokingham, and Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire
- Oxfordshire County Council and its five district and city councils: Cherwell, Oxford, South Oxfordshire, Vale of White Horse and West Oxfordshire
- Swindon
Reading’s leader, Councillor Liz Terry, signed for the borough.
What a mayor would control
The council says the authority would get more money and control over:
- transport and infrastructure
- strategic housing and spatial planning, with an emphasis on social housing
- skills, training and employment support
- business support and inward investment
- low-carbon energy and economic development
It would be led by the elected mayor and a board with a representative from each upper-tier council. That means Reading would have one seat.
The Chancellor also set out new money that follows a mayor. In his Budget speech he said 20% of business rates revenue will go to mayors from next year. From 2028, mayors will get a share of income tax receipts and the power to bring in an overnight visitor levy.
What stays with Reading Borough Council
The council says local councils would still be responsible for:
- bin and waste collections
- social care
- housing services
- schools
- leisure
- local planning decisions
You would still contact Reading Borough Council for those services. The council’s FAQs say the authority “focuses on regional coordination, not local service delivery”.
What happens next
The councils will now write a detailed proposal. Each council is due to approve it for consultation in December. A stakeholder consultation follows in the New Year.
A formal proposal would go to the government in spring 2027. The authority would be set up in shadow form later that year, and the first mayoral election would follow in 2028. The council’s FAQs put that election “by May 2028”.
What the council says
Cllr Terry said she was “delighted with today’s news”. She said the Thames Valley is “England’s second most productive economy per capita after London”.
“A new Thames Valley mayoral strategic authority will unlock enormous benefits for residents in Reading,” she said.
The council’s FAQs claim an authority could “unlock up to £18.7 billion for the Thames Valley economy by 2040”. The FAQs do not say where that estimate comes from.
What it means for you
- Nothing changes yet. Your bins, council tax bill and planning applications stay with Reading Borough Council.
- You will get a new vote. Expect a Thames Valley mayoral election in 2028, on top of Reading’s own council elections.
- You can have a say first. A consultation is planned for the New Year. We will publish the dates and the link when it opens.
- One open question is cost. Some existing mayors add a precept to council tax bills. The council’s FAQs do not say whether a Thames Valley mayor would. The funding sources they list are government budgets, retained business rates and private investment.
This comes on top of a separate change at the council itself. Reading must switch to a Leader and cabinet by May 2027 under the same 2026 devolution law. For what you pay now, see our Reading council tax bands page.
Have your say