Devolution as Bandwidth Optimisation
Central government should handle global-scale decisions and devolve everything else to those on the front line
Westminster and Whitehall face a bandwidth problem. The global context — geopolitical conflict, climate crisis, rearmament decisions, trade strategy — demands concentrated central attention. Simultaneously, central departments are allocating the unit cost of apprenticeships in specific regions, approving bus route changes, and managing planning applications for individual developments. This is not a resource problem — it is a structural mismatch between the level at which decisions are made and the level at which information about those decisions exists.
Byrne's Devolution as Bandwidth Optimisation framework argues that this is fundamentally a signal-to-noise problem. Regional leaders (he cites Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester, Richard Parker in the West Midlands) have information about local economic conditions, labour market needs, and infrastructure priorities that simply does not exist in Whitehall. Forcing those decisions through Westminster not only degrades the quality of the decisions — it consumes the cognitive bandwidth that central government needs for genuinely national and global-scale problems.
The military logistics analogy is instructive: no senior commander tries to tell truck drivers where to park because the information required to make that decision exists only at the tactical level. The chain of command operates by setting goals and constraints at the strategic level and delegating execution to those with local information. The same principle should govern the relationship between Westminster and regional government.
- Central government bandwidth should be reserved for decisions that genuinely require national or global-level information.
- Regional leaders have information about local conditions that cannot be effectively aggregated and transmitted to the centre.
- Devolution is not just an equity argument — it is an efficiency argument about where decisions should be made relative to where information exists.
- Resistance to devolution is an institutional incentive problem, not a capability problem — departments protect turf rationally.
- The goal of devolution is not just to transfer spending but to transfer decision-making authority along with the resources.
- Categorise decisions by information locationFor each policy domain, ask: where does the information required to make good decisions actually exist? Global trade strategy: information is national and international — keep central. Apprenticeship unit costs in a specific region: information is local — devolve.Pro tipThe bandwidth test: if the decision requires a central department to request data from a regional body to answer it, the decision should be made regionally.WarningSome decisions appear local but have significant national spillovers (e.g. planning decisions for nationally significant infrastructure) — these require a hybrid model, not pure devolution.
- Devolve budget alongside decision-making authorityDevolution without budget transfer is performative. Regional leaders must control the resource allocation, not just be consulted on decisions made centrally. The West Midlands and Greater Manchester models demonstrate that combined budgets across housing, transport, skills, and employment generate integration benefits that departmental silos cannot.Pro tipMulti-year block grants with minimal ring-fencing maximise the integration benefit — they allow local leaders to redirect resources between domains based on local conditions.WarningCentral departments will resist budget transfer more than decision transfer — the resource is the institutional power.
- Redesign central departments around strategic functions onlyAfter devolution, central departments should retain only functions that genuinely require national-level information or coordination: standard-setting, international negotiation, redistribution across regions, and accountability for outcomes. Everything else is devolved.Pro tipUse the army logistics analogy explicitly in reform design: define the strategic command functions (goal-setting, resource allocation, accountability) and separate them from operational delivery.WarningCivil service culture will resist this reframing — departments see operational delivery as core to their identity and influence.
- Anchor reform in economic scale argumentsFrame devolution as a productivity argument: the economy of Greater Manchester and the North West is larger than some European countries. Trying to manage it from Westminster is not just politically unfair — it is economically inefficient. This framing appeals beyond traditional devolution constituencies.Pro tipComparative GDP data for English regions vs. European countries makes the scale argument vivid and cross-partisan.
Andy Burnham spent years in court battles to regain the ability to run an integrated bus network in Greater Manchester — a local transport decision that had to fight against central regulatory frameworks designed for a national deregulation agenda.
A senior army officer responsible for multi-billion logistics operations (camp setup, supply chains) explained that central control of tactical decisions is impossible — you set strategic goals and trust local commanders to make the right decisions for their conditions.
The podcast host had faster internet at a remote Icelandic glacier than at his home and business in Southport, despite running a media company that generates millions of monthly views.
Byrne attempted to implement radical devolution in 2009 when he was in the Cabinet Office. The attempt failed — defeated by an alliance of civil servants who were unwilling to surrender the power and resource that flowed through their departments. The experience gave him both the conviction that devolution was structurally necessary and the practical understanding of why it faces internal resistance: it is not primarily a political problem but an institutional incentive problem. Civil servants and central departments are rational actors protecting their turf.