On 31 July 2026 the Cabinet Office published Rewiring the State, setting out the Burnham Government’s programme to move power from Whitehall to mayors and strategic authorities in England. A new letter, ‘The Simplification and Agency of Government’, was released on 7 September 2026 and adds detail to that statement of intent.
Brevia, a public relations and public affairs agency, has assessed the letter and what it could mean for businesses and charities. If your organisation would appreciate a briefing on the implications for your projects, get in touch with the Brevia team today.
Fewer Duties, Faster Decisions
The letter comes from the Chancellor, the Cabinet Office (the Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP) and the Attorney General. It was released ahead of the formal government legal guidance, which is incumbent on any new Prime Minister or Attorney General to produce. It aims to ‘set out three areas where this Government will act with greater alacrity – on consultations, on legal considerations, and on judicial review – as initial steps in what will be a wider programme of work to pare back counterproductive administrative burdens.’
On consultation, the letter argues that the process can ‘drag policies to a lowest common denominator outcome.’ It says Burnham’s government ‘will end this trend by reasserting that there is no general duty of consultation’. This is already the case, hence ‘reasserting’, but it shows that the Government recognises that confidence in the infrastructure sector is dwindling, and that proactive steps are needed to restore it.
On legal risk, the letter states that ‘it is wholly proper for ministers to take decisions where there is a tenable legal argument even where there is a high legal risk’, a marked departure from the guidance issued while Lord Hermer was Attorney General. It also instructs ministerial teams to weigh the likelihood of a legal challenge being brought, as well as the strength of the claim. This raises the chance that projects which are less public or conspicuous, or which affect only less well-funded groups, could be advanced despite a high legal risk.
On judicial review, the letter would expand the exemptions ‘from only energy projects to all nationally significant infrastructure projects.’
A Statement of Intent
In recent years, government legal advice has shifted from a statutory duty fulfilled by the Government Legal Department to an instrument of political signalling. It is now often used to show what ‘message’ a government wants to send.
In tone, the letter is closer to the approach taken by Suella Braverman when she was Attorney General, than that of Lord Hermer. Furthermore, as a statement of intent, rather than policy, it operates more as an instruction to ministers and the public rather than a guidebook for officials or lawyers. Sir Jonathan Jones KCB KC (Hon), former Treasury Solicitor and head of the Government Legal Department, argues that ‘the essential elements are unchanged, and I doubt whether it will make much difference to the day-to-day work of government lawyers.’
Delivery Questions
According to Rhion Jones of Consultation GuRU, the letter is ‘far clearer about the processes they want to eliminate than the functions they want to fulfil’. Successive Governments have pledged to ‘rip up consultation culture’, yet it has proved persistent.
The Consultation Institute has published a full response, urging the authors to ‘define and identify funding for the replacement [to consultations], establish how it will be assured, and only then decide which duties can safely be revoked.’ It stresses that consultation is not inherently an evil, so there is a risk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Structural or Political?
The letter is a proactive attempt to overcome the perceived, deeply embedded inertia in parts of Government that politicians find frustrating. Whether that inertia, and the proposed fix, is structural or political is unclear, and it remains to be seen whether the revised approach will change outcomes in practice.
Speak to Brevia
Our team has a strong track record of helping clients understand and respond to shifts in government policy. If your organisation would appreciate a briefing on how the Government’s simplification agenda could affect your consultation, legal and planning risk, get in touch with the Brevia team on 020 7091 1650 or contact@brevia.co.uk.
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