English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill: Government motion to disagree to Lords Amendment 37

**What happened:** On 21 April 2026, MPs voted by 291 to 144 to reject Lords Amendment 37 to the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill. This was a government motion to disagree with a change the House of Lords had made to the Bill, and the government also tabled its own Amendment (a) in lieu of the Lords amendment, offering an alternative approach. The motion passed comfortably, meaning the Lords' version of Amendment 37 will not form part of the legislation unless the Lords insist on it in further exchanges between the two chambers. **Why it matters:** The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill is the government's flagship legislation for transferring powers from Whitehall to regional and local authorities across England, described by the minister as "the biggest transfer of power out of Whitehall to our regions and our communities in a generation." Lords Amendment 37 concerned local authority governance, specifically relating to provisions about executives and governance structures in councils. The government opposed it on the grounds that its own provisions already struck the right balance, and instead offered a replacement amendment in lieu. The outcome means the government's preferred approach to local authority governance arrangements, rather than the Lords' version, will shape how councils in England are structured going forward. **The politics:** The vote divided almost entirely along party lines. All 288 Labour and Labour-Co-operative MPs who voted did so in favour of the government's motion, while all 80 Conservatives and 57 Liberal Democrats who voted opposed it, as did all five Green MPs. The Conservative opposition characterised the Bill throughout the debate as centralising rather than genuinely devolving power, with Sir James Cleverly arguing that it "takes decisions away from local communities and places them into the hands of Ministers, often without consent." This division on Amendment 37 was one of several on the same day, with the government also defeating Lords amendments 2, 4, 13, 26 and 36 by similar margins, indicating a sustained Commons-versus-Lords contest over the shape of the legislation as it enters its final parliamentary stages.