Councils warn Keir Starmer that local government reorganisation threatens services for the vulnerable

Councils have warned Sir Keir Starmer that plans for local government reorganisation represent a threat to vulnerable communities and flagship reforms of services supporting children.

A letter to the Prime Minister signed by leaders of 16 members of the County Council Network (CCN) said decisions confirmed in March were not consistent with the Government’s statutory criteria and had “all the hallmarks of a set of short-term political choices”.

The Government announced 15 new unitary councils will be created across Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk and Hampshire, with decisions to be confirmed on the number of unitary councils in 16 counties later this summer.

Portsmouth City Council and Hampshire County Council have already indicated that they will take legal action over the decision, as they are unhappy with it. Council leader Steve Pitt last month told The News his concerns about the £67m deficit that Portsmouth may inherit, saying “where we would have to cut services is just fundamentally unjust which is why we have to keep pushing them to say no.”

Essex, Suffolk and Norfolk are now under Reform UK leadership after the local elections in May, and the party will chair the organisation as the biggest group. Suffolk and Norfolk county councils had proposed a single unitary authority in each area, and Essex and Hampshire opted for three.

However, the Government decided on three unitary councils in Suffolk and Norfolk, four in Hampshire and five in Essex.

These “most radical” plans in three of the four areas involve complex changes to existing boundaries, the CCN said.

The letter added: “The departure from the statutory criteria without clear, transparent reasoning and published supporting evidence is deeply troubling and raises serious doubts over the robustness of the decisions taken.

“Despite requests, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government is unwilling to disclose departmental analysis to justify how ministers reached the conclusion that they were ‘satisfied’ proposals can be delivered on a sustainable financial basis.

“Given the unprecedented degree of disaggregation and fundamentally untested nature of boundary change, we strongly question whether ministers have fully and sufficiently evaluated proposals against the public service criterion.

“Moreover, the scale of fragmentation, combined with complex boundary changes and an enormously ambitious timetable for delivery, are causing serious concerns from our senior staff about the capacity of the system to deliver safe and legal services to the timetable proposed.”

Calling for the Government to immediately disclose evidence that informed the decisions already taken, the CCN said it is “unreasonable” to expect new council administrations in devolution priority areas to respond effectively without full disclosure of departmental analysis.

The letter added: “If this pattern of large-scale fragmentation and complex boundary change, at odds with the Government criteria, is repeated, this will create a pattern of reform that is more costly, less stable and less effective than the current two-tier system.

“The creation of more undersized, fragmented unitary authorities will weaken economies of scale, increase administrative overheads, and place additional strain at a time when councils already face severe financial challenges and competing service pressures. It will jeopardise the integrity of essential services, particularly adult and children’s social care.

“Critically, it will render implementation timescales wholly unachievable and require hundreds of millions of central government funding to support transition.

“These are not abstract concerns. They represent a direct threat to vulnerable residents, to the sustainability of new councils, and to the deliverability of the Government’s welcome reforms to children’s services and special educational needs and disabilities in large swathes of the country.”

Some county council leaders have pledged to launch legal challenges to reorganisation, with a focus on the perceived diversion from statutory criteria, including a preferred option that new unitary councils cover populations of 500,000 and avoidance of unnecessary fragmentation of care services.

In a pre-action letter to Communities Secretary Steve Reed ahead of seeking a judicial review, the Reform UK leader of Suffolk County Council, Michael Hadwen, claimed the decision to abolish the authority and lower tier districts and replace them with three unitary authorities was unlawful.

He added: “Suffolk cannot be forced into a costly and chaotic reorganisation on the basis of a flawed process.”

Mr Reed has previously said decisions on reorganisations “do not set any precedent”.

“Decisions will be taken individually, based on the published criteria referred to above, the merits of each proposal we receive and the local context,” he added.

A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government spokesperson said: “We don’t recognise this analysis. In fact, local government reorganisation will save taxpayers money by streamlining services and boosting regional growth so we can put more cash in people’s pockets.

“Our plans will make public services like social care work better for local people, alongside speeding up the construction of vital new homes and infrastructure.”

All county councils impacted by the March decisions, CCN unitary member North Lincolnshire and councils due be decided on in July were invited to sign the letter based on their local circumstances. CCN represents 39 councils.