Greater Manchester's Integrated Settlement and the VCFSE sector
The Integrated Settlement funding deal for Greater Manchester came into effect on 1st April 2025, representing a significant step in the devolution of power from Central Government to the city-region.
This means that a single, flexible pot of funding of £650million replaced a system of separate funding pots from different Government departments, giving Greater Manchester more freedom and flexibility to fund local services and invest in our priorities.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill (see the bottom of this page for a longer summary), published 10th July 2025, sets out the governments plans to “widen and deepen devolution across England”. This bill has named Greater Manchester as an ‘established mayoral strategic authority’ which means GMCA who manage the integrated settlement will benefit from power over local economic development and regeneration, skills and employment, housing and strategic planning, transport, public safety, and public service reform.
Last month (June 2025), colleagues from GMCA spoke at the GM VCFSE Leadership Group meeting to share more about what the Integrated Settlement means. Here's what we learnt:
Relationship with the Greater Manchester Strategy
The Greater Manchester Strategy 2025-2035 is the primary guidance document about how GMCA make decisions, use resources and prioritise. The Strategy lays out the vision for the future of Greater Manchester. It recognises that economic and social progress have always gone hand in hand, which means that key to the strategy is growing the economy and working with the whole system to ensure all residents are able to live well.
The Integrated Settlement is understood as a tool to deliver the Greater Manchester Strategy and, notably, the Strategy makes a pledge to fund and invest in the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector.
The funding ‘pillars’ of the Integrated Settlement
The Integrated Settlement is made up of existing funding of £650million that has been consolidated into one, flexible pot. The new funding pillars of the integrated settlement are:
- Local transport
- Adult skills
- Housing and regeneration
- Local growth and place
- Employment support
- Retrofit (related to the move towards net zero)
Progress within each pillar will be measured by a broad outcome framework that looks at, for example, business productivity in supporting local growth, improving public transport, and an increased supply of infrastructure and quality housing.
More flexibility
The Integrated Settlements provides significantly more autonomy for Greater Manchester than previously.
Spending commitments can be made for the future rather than, as before, returning the funding to Central Government. The long-term nature of the Integrated Settlement is transformative; it comes with the ability to plan ahead and support levelling-up agendas related to equity, geography and communities of interest, meaning improved outcomes for Greater Manchester citizens.
Furthermore, under the Integrated Settlement, GMCA is able to move funding from one pillar to another (up to 10%), and funding can be moved between programmes within pillars based on system priorities.
There are also non-financial flexibilities that have come along with the Integrated Settlement. For example, the opportunity to bid for retrofit programmes will be linked to the Good Landlord Charter, meaning only those who have made a commitment to improve rental standards for private and social tenants will be eligible for certain schemes.
Voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise sector involvement
Internal processes at GMCA are changing to help re-define how they engage with the VCFSE sector and how integrated settlement funding is allocated. Notably, spending plans must have had engagement from the VCFSE sector to be considered. This means that the role and contribution of the VCFSE sector in design and/or delivery of programmes must be explicit in spending plans related to the integrated settlement before any funding is allocated.
This is a new process so it’s not yet clear exactly how it will work, or the specific role of VCFSE leaders. In the meeting, the importance of engagement being meaningful rather than extractive was highlighted, as was the need for transparency in decision making processes. An offer was made by the GM VCFSE Leadership Group to support GMCA to define this process and consider what good, quality engagement would look like, as per the intention of the integrated settlement.
The hope is that well defined and meaningful collaboration with the sector will ultimately result in the development of new opportunities for the VCFSE sector, as well as more control and ownership for Greater Manchester communities.
The GM VCFSE Leadership Group, alongside members of the Social Enterprise Advisory Group (SEAG), are working together to ensure the sector is actively shaping the implementation of the Integrated Settlement.
The GMVCFSE Leadership Group will continue to communicate progress and opportunities – building on its established role and founding purpose as the sector’s voice in devolution.
Contact for this work: anna.cooper@vsnw.org.uk
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: A quick summary
- To make it quicker and easier to devolve powers from Westminster to local government, the bill has introduced ‘Strategic Authorities’ for each area in England. In much of the country, existing institutions, such as GMCA, will be classified as Strategic Authorities.
- Furthermore, each strategic authority will belong to one’ level of devolution: Foundation, mayoral, or established mayoral, which indicate what range of devolved powers local areas will have from the government. Greater Manchester is an established mayoral strategic authority meaning it will have access to the broadest range of powers and functions.
- The bill sets out a devolution framework which provides a standardised set of arrangements stating what each ‘level’ of devolution is entitled to.
- Established mayoral strategic authorities, such as Greater Manchester, will have a right to request devolvement of further powers.
- On the Community Empowerment element of the Bill, it sets out the introduction of a ‘community right to buy’ in an effort to protect valued community spaces such as pubs, shops and community centres. Community groups will be given the first opportunity to purchase community assets, as well as more time to raise funding to meet the agreed purchase price. We know that community ownership is a vital component for a more inclusive economy, so its great to see this included
