The Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 (the 2007 Act) provides the statutory process for making structural changes to councils after the English devolution white paper. 21 two-tier areas and their neighbouring small unitary authorities were invited to make the necessary plans – for final submission by 26th September and with changes starting April 2028.
Those invitations make clear that some sort of public and stakeholder input is needed in the development of plans. The invite alludes to this: –
“The public will rightly expect us to deliver on our shared responsibility to design and implement the best local government structures for efficient and high-quality public service delivery. We therefore expect local leaders to work collaboratively and proactively, including by sharing information, to develop robust and sustainable unitary proposals that are in the best interests of the whole area to which this invitation is issued, rather than developing competing proposals.”
To be specific, the engagement and consultation requirements on reorganisation are also set out more clearly: –
a) We expect local leaders to work collaboratively and proactively, including by sharing information, to develop robust and sustainable unitary proposals that are in the best interests of the whole area to which this invitation is issued, rather than developing competing proposals.
b) For those areas where Commissioners have been appointed by the Secretary of State as part of the Best Value Intervention, their input will be important in the development of robust unitary proposals.
c) We also expect local leaders to engage their Members of Parliament, and to ensure there is wide engagement with local partners and stakeholders, residents, workforce and their representatives, and businesses on a proposal.
d) The engagement that is undertaken should both inform the development of robust proposals and should also build a shared understanding of the improvements you expect to deliver through reorganisation.
e) The views of other public sector providers will be crucial to understanding the best way to structure local government in your area. This will include the relevant Mayor (if you already have one), Integrated Care Board, Police (Fire) and Crime Commissioner, Fire and Rescue Authority, local Higher Education and Further Education providers, National Park Authorities, and the voluntary and third sector.
f) Once a proposal has been submitted it will be for the government to decide on taking a proposal forward and to consult as required by statute. This will be a completely separate process to any consultation undertaken on mayoral devolution in an area, which will be undertaken in some areas early this year, in parallel with this invitation.
The Secretary of State can decide to take forward proposals that are submitted by areas with or without modification but subject to statutory` consultation before they can be implemented.
Blink and you may have missed much of this, yet the underlying implications are huge – regarding boundaries, powers, voices and equity. A rare but important opportunity to get things right – you’d think.
It is a worry, therefore, that some of these exercises are less than a month in duration (e.g. https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/have-your-say-on-local-government-reorganisation-take-survey/ & https://www.shapingwestsussex.org/ ) and at a time when people are enjoying their holidays.
In places that are more advanced (and in the consultation mode) (e.g. https://consult.communities.gov.uk/local-government-reorganisation/surrey/) the questionnaires seem to avoid the key question which is ‘do you agree with the proposals’ in favour of ridiculously long yes/no ‘questions inside questions’ such as “Will the proposal prioritise the delivery of high quality and sustainable public services to citizens, improve local government and service delivery, avoid unnecessary fragmentation of services and lead to better value for money in the delivery of these services?”
To make matters worse, some smaller Councils (e.g. .https://www.west-lindsey.gov.uk/council-democracy/have-your-say/consultations/current-consultations/local-government-reorganisation-engagement) are asking about the same issues as their larger counterparts -when they don’t even have their own proposals.
We can hardly blame Councils for wanting to fight their corner. Our conclusion is that the whole process has been rushed and is quite unsatisfactory. The number of ‘voluntary consultations’ being run may well trip up the process for implementing longer term changes – particularly when salient issues arise around ‘levelling up’. That is, when those impacted realise that the impacts extend to local job losses or issues closer to home such as changes to waste collections or charges for garden waste collections.
Fundamentally, however, many of the proposals are hard to understand for those outside of government circles. Ditching plain English means that only the highly informed will be able to scrutinise the benefits or dis-benefits in a way which is meaningful. It’s hard to undo this mess now but our hope is that a period of quality consultation can salvage the later implementation phase post approval – much in the way that Councils consult on the shape and substance of budgets independently.
Unfortunately, this does nothing to convince us that the mantra of faster, leaner, better is actually working.