The major cities across England will be invited to control their own health budgets, as Chancellor George Osborne confirmed last week that he will be extending his Manchester devolution offer nationwide.

Speaking of the proposed Cities’ Devolution Bill, Mr Osborne said it is time for England’s cities to take control of their own affairs and confirmed that this new model of city government will be central to the Queen’s Speech, which will be made later this month.

However, rather than a national devolution scheme, cities will have to approach the Treasury to negotiate the extent of budgetary control they will be given, and the offer is only open to cities who instate an elected mayor.

Under the new system, the Government will hand power from the centre to cities to give them greater control over local healthcare, transport, housing and skills, with Mr Osborne saying that the old model of trying to run everything from London is “broken”.

Under the proposed legislation, Greater Manchester, which is set to be the first city to control its own budget once it has elected a mayor in two years’ time, will see all £6bn of NHS England’s current responsibilities passing over to local government and one of the first priorities for the city will be to expand existing GP seven-day working schemes.

Commenting on the Chancellor’s announcement, a spokesperson for NHS England said that they hope the agreement will be the first of many, and would welcome talks with any city region or locality consortium that wants to do something similar.

However, a spokesman for the General Practitioners’ Committee (GPC) commented that that he was not really sure what the benefits of healthcare devolution to cities were and said that the GPC sees a risk of politicising the health and social care system if elected politicians are put in charge.