DEVOLUTION will give the north the opportunity to unlock its potential, Carlisle's MP has said, as she expressed hope for a combined authority for the north. 

The city's new MP Julie Minns has spoken about the impact that devolution could potentially have on the region as the new Labour government seeks to hand devolved powers to further areas of the country. 

Devolution decentralises certain powers and decision-making to give regions more control over what happens on matters such as transport, planning, and housing.

Ms Minns believes that Cumbria should possibly look beyond the county border for a combined authority that covers the wide northern area.

She said: "Personally, I would love us to have a combined authority of the north. I'm not defining what the geographic boundaries are of that at the moment, but I know that every single time I hear 'the north' people mean Manchester and no further.

"I think it also gives us an opportunity to define the north of England, and to say 'we are the north and we've got all this amazing potential that a new combined authority could potentially unlock.'"

READ MORE FROM OUR INTERVIEW WITH JULIE MINNS: 

Cumbria's two unitary councils - Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness - are already in talks with the government on what devolution might look like for the county. 

Devolved powers could give greater control over buses, with the potential to bring them into local authority control in a model similar to Manchester and London.

However, the government has also committed to looking at a new approach to local authority financing that will reflect the needs of a constituency, as opposed to blanket funding based on the number of people within an area. 

Ms Minns said: "The government's approach now to local government financing will ensure that where, as we have in Cumberland, we've got a low population, ageing population, high degree of need, that the funding formula will reflect that.

"So I'm very heartened that we'll make good the problems that we're already there."

Many combined authorities are led by a directly elected mayor such as Andy Burnham in Manchester and Ben Houchen in Tees Valley. 

It is Ms Minns' belief that a directly elected mayor would give people a greater sense of control and involvement in the democratic process.

This is different to the current set-up in north Cumbria where residents elect a ward councillor who then helps to decide who the leader of Cumberland Council is.

She said: "It would make sense to give people a greater direct line to their politicians who are going to be given far more control."