Skip to content

How plans to merge councils cost millions

Ben Schofield,BBC East political correspondentand
Andrew Sinclair,BBC East political editor
Shaun Whitmore/BBC A view of Norfolk county hall, showing the end of the large, blocky cuboid building and looking along its front. The building is bathed in sunshine and is set against a bright blue sky, with a car park in a foreground and trees behind.Shaun Whitmore/BBC
Angela Rayner, local government secretary, announced on Monday a pause in local government reorganisation after receiving legal advice

Political leaders say stalled attempts to merge councils were "chaotic" and a "charade" which cost millions of pounds of taxpayers' money.

Angela Rayner, local government secretary, announced on Monday a pause in the process after receiving legal advice.

The merger would have seen some two-tier county, district and borough councils scrapped in favour of one-tier unitary councils.

Decisions about the size and shape of the replacement councils in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex have been "withdrawn".

Plans for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, which had already been delayed, are being "reviewed".

Simon Dedman/BBC Peter Harris holding up a piece of paper bearing some typed words and his signature. He is seated inside a wood-panelled room and is wearing a dark blue suit, white shirt and red tie. A large marble fire place can be seen behind him to the right. On the left are a pair of glasses, balanced on a phone and notepad. Simon Dedman/BBC
Peter Harris signed an order to launch a Judicial Review to try to block the government's plans in Essex

Reform UK's Peter Harris, who has been leader of Essex County Council since local elections in May, said Rayner's announcement was "amazing" and "brilliant news for our residents".

His council was one of several Conservative and Reform-run authorities in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex which were taking legal action against the government. A first hearing was due to take place this Thursday.

"They laughed at us – they thought that we couldn't win, but they're not laughing now," he told the BBC.

He said preparing for the change – which would have scrapped 15 councils in Essex and replace them with five – had "cost this council £3.5m during my time".

Harris said he had "refused to sign cheques for £20m and £50m" linked to local government reorganisation.

He added: "There will be other councils that will have spent significant money – I chose not to do that and to fight."

He said he feared the proposed new councils would not have been "financially viable."

Harris said he was "not against change" and supported government plans for devolving power away from Westminster, including creating a mayor for Greater Essex.

What was proposed?

  • Essex - Scrapping 15 councils – the county council, two unitaries and 12 district or borough councils – and replacing them with five unitary authorities
  • Suffolk - Replacing the county, district and borough councils with three unitary councils
  • Norfolk - Replacing seven second-tier councils and Norfolk County Council with three unitary councils
  • Cambridgeshire & Peterborough - No firm plans announced, with an update due in September
  • Hertfordshire - Scrapping 10 district and borough councils, and the county council, and setting up four unitary authorities

Southend-on-Sea City Council leader, Labour's Daniel Cowan, said his authority had "led the development" of the five-council model in Essex.

He said he was "proud" of that work, which "offered the best balance between financial sustainability and maintaining strong local identities".

But he added that recently "it became clear that, while new councils could technically be created on time, delivering our business case's transformation was becoming much harder".

He added: "The alarm bells rang when meaningful county council engagement fell away, leaving 'safe and legal' rather than 'transformed' as the only realistic option."

Cowan said preparation work was "not wasted" as it had helped councils "understand far more about service models, costs, integration, duplication and where different ways of working across Essex can be improved".

Table explaining the different types of councils. Town or parish council - the smallest type of council, responsible for local issues like allotments and play areas. District council - responsibilities include bin collections, parks and local planning, with other services provided by a county council. County council - provides services across the whole country, such as road maintenance, schools and libraries. Unitary authority - a type of council that provides all local government services, including housing.

According to the Local Government Intelligence Unit – a non-partisan think tank – what began as "the most ambitious change to local government in a generation now looks in danger of becoming a colossal white elephant – a huge drain on time, resources and goodwill".

Its chief executive Jonathan Carr-West said the government's announcement "rides roughshod over thousands of hours of work".

Cambridgeshire County Council's Liberal Democrat leader, Lucy Nethsingha, said the preparation involved "very painstaking, detailed work, by expensive people".

She said the decision to abolish the council by May 2028 had affected the way her council had approached re-negotiating multi-million pound contracts, including its highway repairs agreement.

That contract was extended to 2030 rather than being re-tendered.

"We would have done that process differently if it was not for this," Nethsingha said.

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough did not know exactly how their councils were going to be carved up.

Nethsingha called for "clarity" over what happens next.

"I can see the rationale for unitaries but the process has been a charade."

Andrew Turner/BBC Daniel Elmer, who has sandy coloured hair and a neatly trimmed beard, looking directly down the lens. He is wearing a light brown jacket and an open-necked, checked shirt. He is smiling, though not showing his teeth. He is standing in an open-plan office, with rows of desks and chairs behind him and strip lighting hanging from the ceilings.Andrew Turner/BBC
David Elmer says he believes local government reorganisation was now "dead"

Daniel Elmer, the Conservative leader of South Norfolk Council, believed the plans would have created "one of Britain's poorest councils, in east Norfolk".

Local government reorganisation was now "dead", Elmer believed.

"I don't see now how the government will be able to bring forward proposals before the next general election that can be implemented before the next general election.

"I think this will be a review that will then lead to nothing."

Reform's David Bick, who leads Norfolk County Council, said the plans were "destroying the identity" of the county and were "going to cost a great deal of money without identifiable benefits".

"So whichever way you looked at this, it made no sense," he said.

But Norwich City Council's Green leader, Lucy Galvin, who had supported the proposals in the county, hoped the government's review would be "rapid" and "we can move forward".

Vikki Irwin/BBC The glass front of Suffolk County Council's headquarters. The Council's logo – a shield, with a sun rising out of the waves – is on the left, while Suffolk County Council is written in blue writing in the middle of the frame. Seating in an open plan atrium can be seen through the glass. Vikki Irwin/BBC
A leading Conservative in Suffolk said the process had been "chaotic"

In Suffolk, the county council was advertising for several local government reorganistion-linked roles, including an £80,000-a-year "communications and engagement lead".

Richard Rout, who leads the Conservative group on the council, said the reorganisation process had been "chaotic from start to finish".

Rout said his group had "long argued that a single unitary council for Suffolk would be smarter, simpler and better for our local residents, businesses and communities".

Labour's Neil MacDonald, who leads Ipswich Borough Council, said his priority was "ensuring that any future changes to local government structures deliver better outcomes for residents, stronger local accountability, sustainable public services, and a real voice for communities".

John Fairhall/BBC Andrew Stringer, apparently mid-sentence while addressing a meeting. He has a bald head and short greying beard and is looking off-camera. He is wearing a dark jacket, white shirt and a green tie. There is another man in a suit and tie sitting behind stringer. They are in a formal-looking setting, with vertical office blinds and white walls.John Fairhall/BBC
Green councillor Andrew Stringer fears some councils are not financially sustainable

Meanwhile, councils will be counting the cost of the process so far.

Andrew Stringer, the leader of the Green group on Suffolk County Council and a councillor in Mid-Suffolk, said he was "angry at the potential waste of time and money".

The Greens had supported plans to create three authorities in the county.

Stringer said without change, Suffolk's councils were "still not on a sustainable financial footing" and would be "pitting potholes against adult social care" in the competition for limited resources.

Do you have a story suggestion? Contact us below.

Follow East of England news on X, Instagram and Facebook: BBC Beds, Herts & Bucks, BBC Cambridgeshire, BBC Essex, BBC Norfolk, BBC Northamptonshire or BBC Suffolk.

More on this story
Related internet links