All four councils – Derbyshire County Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Derby City Council and Nottingham City Council – are due to decide whether to formally agree that a public consultation about the devolution deal proposal should go ahead. Derbyshire will consider this at a meeting of Full Council on 2 November.
The devolution deal would provide the region with a guaranteed income stream of £38 million per year over a 30-year period, and would cover around 2.2 million people, making it one of the biggest in the country.
The deal would not mean scrapping or merging local councils, which would all continue to exist as they do now and would still be responsible for most public services in the area. The combined authority would instead focus on wider issues like transport, regeneration, and employment across both cities and counties.
Read more about devolution.