It is not the Government’s job to redraw the map of England, a minister has said, as he ruled out creating “supercouncils” through a reform of town halls.
Local government minister Jim McMahon said local government reforms would give elected councillors “far more power” to make decisions in their areas.
But some MPs warned that the English Devolution White Paper which the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published on Monday could see money spread out over larger areas.
Two-tier areas, covered by both county and district authorities, would be abolished under the plans and new unitary councils could emerge, which “must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks”.
The Conservatives said that the document sends “a very clear message” to authority leaders “that this Government feels that the men from Whitehall know best what their place needs, not bottom-up local leadership, but top-down templates for local government”.
Conservative shadow local government minister David Simmonds told the Commons: “Instead of genuine devolution, what this White Paper sets out is a reductive approach.
“It’s a mishmash of new tiers, new taxes, taking decision-making further distance away from residents, and if the experience of London is anything to go by, costing them a fortune at the same time.”
Lewis Cocking, Conservative MP for Broxbourne in Hertfordshire, quoted from the white paper which proposes unitary councils with a population of 500,000 or more in most areas.
He asked: “What does ‘or more’ mean? Does that mean I could end up with a supercouncil for Hertfordshire covering 1.2 million people, a proposal which I would not support?”
Mr McMahon replied: “Well in some ways we have to give direction because what we heard during the consultation stage with local government – and that includes, by the way, the County Councils Network and the District Councils Network – is the more clarity of a framework that can be provided by central government up front, the far better for local government to be able to then organise.
“And so we were very clear that on an efficiency level, if the drive is for efficiency, that 500,000 is roughly the population that you would need to draw out those efficiencies, and so in the example that he gave, that wouldn’t be 1.2 million, that might be, say, two or even three, because in areas where areas are in discussion for a mayoral combined authority, we have accepted, and it’s outlined in the paper, that there will need to be some flexibility in terms of scale and size of the local authorities that sit under it.”
Vikki Slade, the Liberal Democrats’ local government spokeswoman, said that when councils in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole merged in 2019 to create a single authority, it left taxpayers “not convinced that large unitaries work for them”.
She said: “They just see a more remote council that has to cover a much bigger area, moving money from where it was raised to be spent elsewhere and through an organisation that can’t understand the differing needs.”
She minister warned of a “two-tier premium that the taxpayer is paying for”, with their payments going to both smaller district and larger county councils.
Cat Smith, the Labour MP for Lancaster and Wyre, said: “The minister in his statement said that this was the end of a top-down approach from central Government, but to many of my constituents, this looks a lot like a one-size-fits-all model that works for Greater Manchester, which he represents quite ably, but doesn’t necessarily work for the rural English counties.”
Mr McMahon, whose constituency is Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton, rejected “the one-size-fits-all argument any more than to say that councillors work in some areas but not others, members of Parliament work in some areas but not others”.
He added: “In the end, mayors, when given the powers and the resources, can achieve change in partnership with local leaders.
“We are not creating supercouncils. We are creating a strategic authority that gives power from this place downwards and allows councillors to have far more power.”
Taking questions about county council elections due in 2025, the minister said “the assumption is that elections in counties are taking place as planned with the exception of those areas who actively come to us to say that they want reorganisation discussions, and they have a proposal that they can work up”.
There would be no elections for an authority which has confirmed its reorganisation plans, with voting postponed until a “shadow authority” emerges.
On the process of creating the new authorities, he added: “The Government’s role is to invite and to receive, it’s not our job to draw the maps that then follow, it’s for local areas to do that.”
