The LGA continues to represent all councils in talks on reforms
As first readers will know, the LGA has been consulting closely with its membership since the publication of the English Devolution White Paper in December.
As I told MPs when giving evidence on the reforms in late January, our regular engagement with councils across all regions has highlighted to us that uncertainty around the proposals has led to an information vacuum that is being filled by speculation.
That is why, in January, I also signed a cross-party LGA letter to Local Government Minister Jim McMahon, setting out where clarity is needed on a range of issues, including legislative schedules, timelines for devolution and reorganisation, election postponements, and criteria for establishing mayoral strategic authorities. As first was going to press, there was some clarity on some of these issues, with confirmation that elections due this May will be delayed in six areas now on a fast-track to setting up combined county authorities, with mayoral elections in 2026.
In our letter to the minister, we also highlighted that councils continue to ask for further information on how the 500,000-population benchmark for local government reorganisation was reached, and for clarity on the Government’s flexibility around this number.
The latest ministerial statement reiterated that new unitary councils should aim for a population of 500,000 or more, but that “there may be certain scenarios in which this 500,000 figure does not make sense for an area, including on devolution, and this rationale should be set out in a proposal”.
It is also important to understand how councils will be funded, up front, to deliver on reorganisation. Areas that have already gone through this process relied heavily on reserves to unitarise and some estimations for one-off costs range from £25 million to £100 million.
My letter spelled out that, because of the significant financial constraints councils are facing, many areas do not have strong reserves and others are in worse financial positions.
It is also important to consider how debt will be managed, to ensure new unitary councils are financially viable.
We know there is real concern among our members over the impact of these reforms on existing day-to-day council services. We warned the minister that the focus on structural change could result in limited capacity to deliver on key areas, such as special educational needs and disabilities, social care, housing and adoption of digital technologies, where real savings and growth can be achieved.
We also advised him of the importance of providing clarity on which powers belong at a local and strategic level, and how strategic authorities will work with local authorities to co-design and co-deliver services.
From our early analysis, there appears to be a transfer of some powers from local authorities to strategic authorities, such as on transport, local skills improvement plans, and strategic direction of affordable housing programmes.
We are also working with councils that want to use this opportunity to further understand the potential the white paper offers to unpack integrated budgets and additional powers.
The LGA believes that devolution is key to unlocking the further potential of local government. We are determined to ensure we capture and reflect all our members’ views with government, to get the best deal for them and the communities they represent.
- For the latest updates from the LGA on devolution and local government reorganisation, please visit our hub.