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Mayors and combined authorities

North East

Councils in North East working together on things that cross their borders, led by a mayor everyone in the area can vote for.

North East Combined Authority (NECA) is an Established Mayoral Strategic Authority with the functions and funding associated with that tier.

The mayor

Kim McGuinness Labour and Co-operative Party

Elected on 2 May 2024.

Source: Democracy Club, Mayor of North East Combined Authority (CC BY 4.0), read 26 October 2026. This is who won the most recent mayoral election; if the post has changed hands since without an election, this page won’t know yet.

Next mayoral election: Democracy Club hasn’t listed it yet.

What the government says about the next election

The Mayor is elected on a 4 year term. The most recent election was in May 2024 with the next election scheduled for 2028.This will be done by Supplementary Vote, as will further elections.

What it decides

The law gives every authority of this kind powers under these headings:

Headings as printed in the government’s Devolution Framework Explainer: Established Mayoral Strategic Authorities (Open Government Licence v3.0), which lists each power under them. Which of them this authority uses, and how, is in its own papers.

Do all combined authorities do the same things?

The specifics of the powers of MSAs vary from place to place but typically include aspects of transport, skills, housing, and local infrastructure investment, and in some cases spatial planning, policing, health and employment support.

Police

NECA’s geography does not align with the area’s police force. Therefore, NECA cannot take on Police and Crime Commissioner functions.

Fire and rescue

NECA’s geography does not align with the area’s Fire and Rescue Authority (FRA). Therefore, NECA cannot become the FRA.

What’s different about how it is run

NECA will continue to have different governance arrangements when it comes transport and local infrastructure functions. These are:

  • NECA has maintained its passenger transport executive, Nexus, which provides transport services in its area.
  • NECA must issue three transport levies to: (a) Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland, and Gateshead; (b) Northumberland; and (c) Durham. This reflects the different provision and governance of transport in the Nexus (Tyne & Wear) area, given its history as a passenger transport executive.
  • NECA must get the consent of each constituent council before exercising its road safety functions in relation to the council’s area. Not all strategic authorities have this function – NECA is the only one which requires constituent council consent to exercise it.

NECA will retain some different powers in relation to education; road safety; bus operator grants; and permit schemes.

Councils in its area

Its constituent councils are County Durham, Northumberland, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Sunderland, and Gateshead.

Every council in its area:

From the ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0), read 26 October 2026.

Website
northeast-ca.gov.uk (from Wikidata)
Meetings and decisions
Governance (the link of that name on its home page, 26 October 2026)
Budget
Not yet read.
The mayor's page
The Mayor (the link of that name on its home page, 26 October 2026)
The mayor on Democracy Club
Kim McGuinness
Cite this page

Harvard style. Every figure on the page also names its original source, which is usually the better thing to cite.

Every authority page has the same sections in the same order. Sources: MHCLG, English devolution: Area factsheets (Open Government Licence v3.0); MHCLG, Devolution Framework Explainers (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to Combined Authority lookup (LAD25_CAUTH25_EN_LU) (Open Government Licence v3.0); ONS Open Geography Portal, Local Authority District to County and Unitary Authority lookup (LAD25_CTYUA25_EW_LU_v2) (Open Government Licence v3.0); Democracy Club, EveryElection (CC BY 4.0); Democracy Club candidates (CC BY 4.0); mySociety, UK Local Authorities, with WhatDoTheyKnow home pages (CC BY 4.0 / CC BY-SA 4.0); Wikidata, official website (P856) (CC0). Parish and town councils are not covered yet. Corrections: hello@whatsittome.org.