A DEVOLUTION deal worth more than £1bn to the Solent has been put on hold.

Civic chiefs say the turmoil in Government means the deal will not go ahead until after a new Prime Minister is appointed.

And while they say they hope it is just a pause in the plans, they say they will have to wait until a new PM is in place to find out if it will go ahead at all.

As previously reported, the Solent deal could see Southampton, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, and later other councils such as Fareham and Eastleigh, seize control of new powers over transport, skills and housing.

It would be worth an extra £30m of funding a year as well as an estimated £400m a year in business rates in exchange for losing the current system of Government grants to councils.

The plans had originally been for the whole of Hampshire, but that was sunk after some council leaders, including county boss Roy Perry, opposed the Government’s insistence on having an elected mayor to run the new combined authority.

An announcement on the Solent deal had been due this summer, but following Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation in the wake of the UK’s vote to leave the EU a decision has been put on hold.

Southampton City Council leader Simon Letts has discussed the deal with Communities and Local Government Secretary Greg Clark at the Local Government Association conference in Bournemouth, and been told no decision will be made until Mr Cameron’s successor is installed in the autumn.

Cllr Letts said: “Unsurprisingly he said he has been told by his civil servants that no decisions can be made until a new leader of the Conservative Party is in place.

“So until a new Prime Minister everything is on hold. But we have been told to go ahead with our governance review.”

When asked if the hold-up could jeopardise the future of the deal, he said: “They are treating it like a change of Government, so who knows.

“We are like the rest of the country who are caught up in the crossfire of Brexit.

“I hope it is only a pause we have to wait for the new Prime Minister to come in and decide what the plan on devolution is.

“We have been given encouragement to carry on the way we have been going but there is no certainty on a decision.”

The governance review being debated in Southampton, the Isle of Wight and Portsmouth this month will see councillors mull over plans for how a new combined authority would be run.

Draft plans would see a directly-elected mayor serve four-year terms with a cabinet made up of one or two councillors from each council.

Voting on policies would be by a simple majority except on “key matters” where a majority of two-thirds would be required.