Council reorganisation - What does it mean?

Duncan Enright of the The CCP explains in simple terms what is being proposed by the Government and how that will impact on Councils across the country.

Today will see the white paper on Devolution in England published, after weeks of rather muted speculation. Clearly the model of combined authorities across strategic regions is established, and is seen to work well particularly in city regions like London and Manchester. The model introduced in Scotland and Wales has been different, yet despite kerfuffles between local authorities and national bodies, it has settled into a familiar pattern of arguments about funding, without much fundamental challenge to the new structure. Combined authorities with elected mayors exist across a huge swathe of the country already - so London, North of England (apart from the far north west), West Midlands - not much change there.

So, what is this Devo proposal in England all about? The first challenge is to complete the coverage of combined authorities, headed by an elected mayor. So far, as mentioned above, the great conurbations have largely taken this leap. Approximately 70% of England, and that's about 80% of the UK population, is covered by existing devolution deals.

The second challenge is how to complete the move from two-tier (county and districts) to unitary councils, which seems to be compulsory if devolution is to work. Expect big arguments about how this will happen. There is unfinished business in and around the counties named after their historic central towns and cities because of the unresolved demographic, social and service differences between the capital and the county - think Oxford, Leicester, Lancaster, Stafford, Northampton, Warwick and so on. There are large counties with multiple centres, such as Preston, Carlisle, Lancaster and Blackburn in the North West, and many large towns and cities in Kent.

Some counties are now unitary, and have identities that lend them distinctiveness not easily resolved by a combined authority model - what would Cornwall think of being under a combined authority with Devon? Who will unitary Buckinghamshire view as partners? Then there are outlier unitaries not in sync with their neighbours: is Swindon really a good fit with its historic home of Wiltshire (clue: no); the same goes for Brighton in Sussex or Southampton and Portsmouth in Hampshire. One final wrinkle is that some existing combined authorities include mix of unitaries (think Nottingham, Derby) with two-tier authorities (Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire counties still work with districts across the rest of their patches). 

Planning powers lie with districts, counties provide an overview which often falls short of full strategic planning (maybe because the historic counties are not large enough and do not coincide with economic or social areas of confluence). A combined authority will provide a mechanism, if the partner authorities are well chosen across an economic area and work together well, for a return to truly useful strategic planning across a sub region. However this is something the existing combined authorities have not really leant into coherently yet.

A final wrinkle, which could be a problem or, perhaps, a solution to the issue of localism in diverse unitaries, is the humblest yet most historically important and (in some places) present level of local government in everyday life: the town or parish council. Could some of these take on more service provision and responsibility - including for granular planning decisions? Neighbourhood plans are patchy and varied in scope and quality, but could they be boosted to provide a basis for design guides and local visions, if made compulsory for parishes and towns? Could mega-town council powers under a larger unitary offer a way for existing cities to maintain their sense of identity, control over development, and perhaps continue to offer services such as council housing, road and parks maintenance, free parking and parking charges, and community and economic development services? And how do you square the circle of village parishes freeloading on the services provided by towns?

The biggest danger of all is that the reorganisation gets bogged down by local turf wars, and brings to a halt the regeneration, housebuilding and growth needed so desperately by our country. However, as many councils celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1974 act which established them,  many people (councillors included) will be asking the question: could we organise things better? The prize is greater devolution from Whitehall, and in one of the most centralised countries in the world, that has to be a prize worth fighting for.