The county council leader has reiterated his “optimism” for a devolution deal for Hampshire due to “good” conversations with neighbours.

Last week, Southampton City Council leader Cllr Lorna Fielker said that the “once-in-a-generation” devolution deal for Hampshire was on the horizon thanks to a change in leadership across the county.

During a recent Hampshire County Council meeting on July 18, leader Cllr Nick Adams-King reiterated these words, saying that “optimism” around how all councils can work together to benefit the 1.4 million residents of the county.

Cllr Adams-King said: “I have already spoken with, over the last few weeks prior to the general election, the leaders of Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, and had really good conversations with them.

“We are meeting together for the first time at the beginning of August, but in the meantime, I have meetings with each of them individually to begin to talk about where they are.

“I think there is much that we can do. There is new optimism around how we can work together. The bottom line is that a devolution deal will deliver benefits for all of us, for all of our residents, so why wouldn’t we want to do it?”

He said that a “starting” point would be to look at previous deals and consider “what was good about them, what we did not like, and what was missing.”

He added: “I think that’s a good place for us to start.

“Similarly, from the government side, we understand that there’ll be various different options that we can look at as well, and that gives us a framework that we can begin to talk about and have a good discussion about.

“Important thing is of course that we respect the area and we have already spoken to one another and agreed that this is a discrete area of the county area plus the three unitaries and we will be working within that out of boundary. What it looks like internally is something that we can yet discuss.”

The “once-in-a-generation” plans to potentially secure new powers and investment of £1.14 billion to the region from a Pan-Hampshire County Deal was withdrawn last year. It was as the unitary councils in Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight Council withdrew from planned discussions with the government and rejected the prospect of a single deal for the wider Hampshire area.

The new Labour Government has backed more devolution, announcing as part of the King’s Speech more powers being passed away from Westminster and to metro mayors and combined authorities.