‘Simpler’ council structure is on the cards

Government plans to develop devolution in England will include local government reorganisation, it has been confirmed.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget has revealed that proposed devolution legislation will involve “working with councils to move to simpler structures that make sense for their local areas.”

A statement in the Budget documents, released after her Commons speech, said that the upcoming English Devolution Paper would set out its plans in more detail.

As well as ‘making sense for local areas’, Labour says local government reorganisation will deliver efficiency savings, “helping to meet the needs of local people”.

Lancashire’s devolution deal was confirmed in September – but the issue of an elected mayor for the county – which currently has 12 district councils and two unitary authorities, as well as the county council – remains very much alive.

The second-tier devolution deal does not require an elected mayor and as a result comes with fewer powers and less funding than a mayoral model.

Jim McMahon, local government and English devolution minister, told the leaders of Lancashire County Council, Blackburn with Darwen Council and Blackpool Council, that the statutory tests to implement the devolution proposal they have spearheaded had been met.

However, approval to create a Combined County Authority (CCA) came with a message from the government encouraging Lancashire’s leaders to take strides towards mayoral devolution as a “gold standard”.

It said it “strongly believes that the benefits of devolution are best achieved through the establishment of combined institutions with a directly elected leader.”

Its statement went on: “Mayors should have a unique role in an institution which allows them to focus fully on their devolved strategic responsibilities, working hand in glove with council leaders who will vitally also focus on the delivery of the essential services for which they are responsible.”

The three local authorities behind the current deal say it means an initial £20m capital funding will be unlocked to support innovation led growth and net zero ambitions across Lancashire, along with further powers and funding for adult education, transport, employment and skills.

Any attempt at local government reorganisation in Lancashire is likely to be met with strong opposition. In an interview with Local Government Chronicle after the Budget Stephen Atkinson, leader of Ribble Valley Council, said the plans were a “massively detrimental proposition”.

Cllr Atkinson was reported as saying the government “doesn't understand what district councils bring” – pointing to benefits such as “civic pride, a sense of place, local responsiveness, understanding local issues”.

He also told the magazine: “We’ve got it all wrong in this country – we think it's about big-ticket items signed off by mayors when it's not – it’s about super local connectivity with the community that you're in.”

The District Councils’ Network has also registered its opposition. In a statement it said: “Reorganisation poses a threat to district councils – the tier of principal local government which is closest to local communities – which face being merged into larger unitary councils, which are further from communities and cover much larger geographical areas.

“The suggestion that reorganisation will automatically bring savings and ‘makes sense for local areas’ is very much open to question.

“There is also no mention in the early-stage proposals of how any reorganisation will improve work between councils and other public services such as the NHS and police, which operate on different boundaries to local government.

“Reorganisation also poses a threat to the 164 district councils’ frontline services, which are used by 21 million people, which include economic development, housing, planning, waste collection, parks and green spaces, environmental health and leisure services.

“The danger is that money is diverted from these services to plug growing financial shortfalls in social care.”

Sam Chapman-Allen, who chairs the organisation, added: “The District Councils’ Network believes that wholesale reorganisation of local government is the last thing the country and our local communities need.

“It would be a huge distraction that would risk paralysing the delivery of local services in large parts of the country for the rest of the parliament. House building and economic development are among the areas that face disruption.

“Any changes must meet the needs of local people. Imposing top-down reorganisation and abolishing district councils would move power away from local communities and would be the opposite to devolution.”