28 Nov 2024
Rumblings from the Government suggest there could be plans to end the two-tier system of local government – abolishing district councils like St Albans and merging them into larger unitary authorities.
The proposals would be the biggest overhaul of local government in more than half a century, with areas open to reform said to include Hertfordshire.
Under the current system, district and borough councils provide a range of services – such as planning, environmental health, bin collection, housing and licensing. Meanwhile, the county council provides services such as education, libraries, social care, highways – and even the fire service.
Back in 2020, then-Herts county council leader Cllr David Williams commissioned consultants to look into creating a unitary authority to save up to £142m a year, but met with fierce opposition from the leaders of district and borough councils.
His successor Cllr Richard Roberts, speaking in 2021, made it clear that from his perspective any changes were not on the agenda.
And residents were also opposed to the plans, with a poll in September-October 2020 showing 59 per cent strongly opposed the creation of a single unitary council across the county, with only 12 per cent saying it was something they would support.
Now the new Labour Government has put the debate back into the spotlight, suggesting not only could we see the creation of unitary authorities, but also the introduction of elected mayors, as part of the upcoming English Devolution White Paper.
Locally, Herts county council has responded to the issue, and a spokesperson said: “We have been open with our residents and businesses that we as a county council are open to exploring options for a devolution deal. After expressing our interest to Government, we are now awaiting the contents of their Devolution White Paper so that we can understand if such a deal would be of benefit to the residents and businesses of the county.
“We remain committed to being open with our residents, businesses and partners from district and borough councils and expect discussions to take place over the forthcoming months.”
In St Albans, the leader of the council Cllr Paul de Kort highlighted a recent Parliamentary question by local MP Daisy Cooper.
She asked the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government whether ministers and officials from the Department have had recent discussions with HCC on the two-tier system of local government in the county.
Minister for Local Government and English Devolution Jim McMahon replied: “There has been no specific discussion on this topic. The Department is always opened to hearing from councils about government in their local area.”
Cllr de Kort said: “Clearly the Labour Government appear keen on some reorganisation of local government, but this may become a bit clearer when they publish their White Paper.
“Currently, the largest unitary authorities outside the large metropolitan – urban – areas are less than 600,000 in population. That is not even half the size of Hertfordshire county. Hertfordshire is a very diverse county in terms of place, for example, Stevenage versus St Albans or Watford versus Ware.”
He stressed that both SADC and HCC were not in favour of creating a unitary authority in the county, adding: “However if a Government with a large parliamentary majority feels this is a priority for them, then it is impossible to ignore it, but we would hope and expect to able to engage on our concerns, that are shared across district councils nationwide.
“Districts and counties nationwide are aware that the Government holds the purse strings and to simply refuse to have a dialogue or to explore how to usefully help them meet their aims productively wouldn’t be very mature politics.”
As to whether this would also involve an elected mayor was impossible to say at this stage, he said: “It appears that the Labour Government are very keen on a ‘mayor’ for every authority. We do not know if they will insist on one for our ‘area’ (whatever that might be). We know that the public are not very keen on this idea outside the large metropolitan authorities and have rejected some of them when referendums have been held.”
According to the Autumn Budget statement, the forthcoming White Paper will “set out more detail on the Government’s devolution plans, including on working with councils to move to simpler structures that make sense for their local areas, with efficiency savings from council reorganisation helping to meet the needs of local people”.
An article in The Sunday Times last weekend suggested the Government saw district councils as responsible for building up cash reserves instead of improving public services, and acting as blockers to growth by rejecting local housebuilding.
The District Councils Network – of which SADC is a member – told the newspaper any reform needed to keep local government genuinely local and connected to local places.
It should also preserve or strengthen real local democratic accountability and ensure residents continue to have a demonstrably close link to the councillors who represent them, and have real local buy-in, reflect local circumstances, not be imposed top-down and avoid being ‘one size fits all’ approach.
The White Paper is expected to be published next week.
