Plans to abolish local government tier halted, reports BritPanorama
Angela Rayner, the local government secretary, announced this week that sweeping plans to abolish a tier of local government in large parts of England have been stopped, reports BritPanorama.
Plans to replace county councils and district councils with a single layer of unitary authorities have been withdrawn in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Changes in another 14 areas have been suspended for “review”: Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire and, where relevant, their neighbouring unitaries.
Elections next May in these areas, which were set to elect the new councils, will proceed for the existing two-tier councils as planned.
What reason did Angela Rayner give?
She told the Commons that, “in the light of legal advice, I want to satisfy myself first that the right process is in place, that it is robust and, of course, that it complies with the law. Secondly, I want to fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of the new administration and the new prime minister, and any additional considerations.”
The important part of that carefully drafted explanation, which she read out without deviating from her text, is that she has received new legal advice, presumably indicating that the government is likely to lose the legal challenges to the new councils being brought by several Reform-controlled councils.
Reform seems to be on a legal roll
Indeed, Nigel Farage expressed satisfaction that Reform’s legal challenge earlier this year forced the government to abandon its plans to postpone local elections in large parts of the country. Steve Reed, Rayner’s predecessor as local government secretary, argued that the elections were unnecessary since the councils were about to be abolished, a stance now rendered obsolete. Farage, conversely, contended that Labour was concerned about its performance in the elections, which ultimately proved accurate, contributing to Keir Starmer’s decline.
In the latest legal challenges, Reform has accused Reed of manipulating the boundaries of new unitary councils to create smaller ones, which could favour Labour, rather than larger councils that would be more efficient.
While one might expect Reform to oppose judicial review, often seen as a cause of bureaucratic inertia since it allows courts to scrutinise government decisions, Farage is willing to use any avenue to challenge the government from the opposition.
So is Steve Reed the fall guy?
The abandonment of these proposals should ideally be a significant embarrassment for the government; however, Rayner seemed notably positive as she announced the reversal. This may be attributed to the decisions being made prior to her tenure. She stated in the Commons: “I want to place on the record that there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by my right honourable friend the member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed) or my honourable friend the member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern).” McGovern was the minister of state for local government before being reassigned to the Department of Health and Social Care, whereas Reed has moved to the back benches.
As a new secretary of state under a new prime minister, Rayner has opted to distance herself from her predecessor’s mistakes, effectively seeking to reset the narrative. Any major shift toward single-tier councils now appears unlikely before the next general election.
Particularly noteworthy is that Rayner’s considerable U-turn coincided with the announcement by Ellie Reeves, the new attorney general, of new guidelines that contradict those of her predecessor, Richard Hermer. Reeves’s directive suggests that ministers should proceed if they believe in their course of action and hold an “arguable case” in law.
The inability of Labour’s plans to redraw local council boundaries to even meet this new threshold points to deeper issues regarding the previous proposals.
