Does anyone understand the local government reorganisation announced yesterday? [View all]

It didn't seem to get a lot of news coverage, despite potentially getting rid of lots of councils.

https://www.local.gov.uk/parliament/briefings-and-responses/devolution-white-paper-day-factual-briefing
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-devolution-white-paper-power-and-partnership-foundations-for-growth/english-devolution-white-paper
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c30n72j4nrqo

As far as I can tell, they want to get rid of district councils, combining them into councils covering at least 500,000 people ("town and parish councils" are barely mentioned, so I presume they stay as they are - ie a local council that looks after parks and recreation, and that's about it). Above those, I think, will be "strategic authorities" of 1.5 million or more (only just larger than my county council), but it seems (again, I think) that these won't be elected, just appointed from the new councils that make it up. And they'd like an elected mayor for each strategic authority.

So I would go from an elected borough council (covering about 140,000) to a council over 3 times the size; and from an elected county council to a marginally larger appointed "strategic authority", plus an elected mayor.

This is presented as "devolution" away from "one of the most centralised countries in the developed world", even though the net effect would be me voting for a council covering a much larger area, and switching from a county council with my local representative to a single mayor. This was not what I thought "devolution" was.