LINCOLN, SLEAFORD & NORTH HYKEHAM LIBERAL DEMOCRATS. The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire

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1 LINCOLN, SLEAFORD & NORTH HYKEHAM LIBERAL DEMOCRATS The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire Cllr John Marriott and Cllr Jim Charters December 2012

2 2 The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire Executive Summary Introduction The idea of a unitary authority, which undertakes the roles of County and District Councils first emerged following the Report into Local Government by a committee led by Lord Redcliffe Maude in The report, which had originally been commissioned by the Labour Government, was left to the Conservative Government which came to power in 1970 to implement. Whilst establishing the blueprint for local government which largely exists to this day, the basic recommendations of Redcliffe Maude were ignored and the Metropolitan Counties that were established were largely abolished by the late 1980s. The idea was further revisited by the Banham Commission of 1992 and again in 2007, when a significant number of County Councils and their Districts were abolished in favour of Unitary Authorities, most notably in areas such as, Wales and, in England, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Shropshire and Northumberland, to name just four. In these areas Town and Parish Councils continued to operate. In addition, cities such as Leicester, Durham and Nottingham became Unitary Authorities in their own right. The majority of areas in England remain so called Two Tier areas ( three tier if you also include their Town and Parish Councils). The case for change Local Government is under attack. The Leader of Birmingham Council was quoted recently as saying that local government as we know it will disappear in the next few years unless it receives greater investment. The Local Government Association (LGA) recently published a report which reckoned that local authorities could be in the red to the tune of over 19 BILLION by 2020 unless something is done. Many District Councils up and down the country are facing bankruptcy and are already exploring ways of collaboration. Yet again central government has postponed the day of reckoning for many authorities by offering another bribe in the form of another Council Tax Freeze Grant. Recently, Lord Heseltine, in his review of the regions, has come out strongly in favour of unitary authorities at the expense of District and County Councils. Unitary authorities appear to be better equipped to weather the financial tsunami that is engulfing us. The current three tier system still operating in many parts of this country is a system we can no longer afford. A Model for Lincolnshire We feel that our county would benefit from a change in structure. There are various permutations, ranging from an option to turn the whole of Lincolnshire into one massive Unitary Authority, which we would resist, to options which would envisage the creation of up to four Unitary Authorities as well as a radical proposal to link the two Unitary Authorities south of the River Humber with the rest 2

3 3 of Lincolnshire to create unitary governance from the Humber to the Wash. There will, of course, be some initial costs, as it may be necessary to contemplate some redundancies. These could be offset by the sale of certain assets. In any case, if examples elsewhere are anything to go by, the monies released would more than compensate. The next steps A Motion to the Lincolnshire County Council supporting the Unitary approach in December 2012 failed to gain support. However, that should not be the end of the story. Our citizens need to be made aware that there could be a better way to run local government and central government needs to take note of this fact if we are to avoid even more massive cuts in these difficult financial time. We would welcome your views on this matter. If you wish to contact us, please feel free to do so. Here are some contact details: Cllr John Marriott Tel: john@fnarg.demon.co.uk David Harding- Price political@davidhardingprice.co.uk Cllr Jim Charters jim.charters@ntlworld.com Cllr John Bishop john66bishop@btinternet.com 3

4 4 The Case for Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire Introduction A Unitary Authority combines the functions of a County and District Council. The concept first emerged in Lord Redcliffe Maude s report into local government of 1969, which had been commissioned by the Wilson Government and was largely abandoned in the subsequent Conservative Government s Local Government Act of 1972 (which, incidentally saw the creation of bodies such as the Lincolnshire County Council and the abandonment of the old Rural District Councils and the introduction of the District Councils we have today). It notably established Metropolitan Counties such as West Yorkshire, West Midlands as major urban areas and Cleveland, Humberside and Avon as new metropolitan counties with supposed common interests. In 1986, Margaret Thatcher abolished the major urban area County Councils, making their constituent districts unitary authorities, which remain today. Since 1972 there have been two further reviews of local government. The first, in the early 1990 s, conducted by a team led by Sir John Banham, led to the abolition of the unloved metropolitan counties of Avon, Humberside and the formation of smaller unitary authorities. The second, in 2009, saw the creation of unitary authorities to replace the county councils in Cornwall, Northumberland, County Durham, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Bedfordshire and Cheshire. Also, several cities, notably Leicester and Nottingham in the East Midlands, achieved unitary status. The Case for Change Local Government is under attack. The Leader of Birmingham Council was quoted recently as saying that local government as we know it will disappear in the next few years unless it receives greater investment. The Local Government Association (LGA) recently published a report which reckoned that local authorities could be in the red to the tune of over 19 BILLION by 2020 unless something is done. Many District Councils up and down the country are facing bankruptcy and are already exploring ways of collaboration. Yet again central government has postponed the day of reckoning for many authorities by offering another bribe in the form of another Council Tax Freeze Grant. Recently, Lord Heseltine, in his review of the regions, has come out strongly in favour of unitary authorities at the expense of District and County Councils. Larger Unitary authorities appear to be better equipped to weather the financial tsunami that is about to engulf us. The current three tier system still operating in many parts of this country is a system we can no longer afford. Why change the system in Lincolnshire? Is it really value for money to have eight Chief Executives and Chief Financial Directors (10 if we include the two Lincolnshire unitary Councils), for example, or to have one authority responsible for Planning and another for Highways, or one authority responsible for Social Care and another for social housing? Is it right to have well over half of our county councillors also sitting on District 4

5 5 Councils, when conflicts of interest could easily occur? A switch to unitary authorities would in the long run save a great deal of money and alleviate much of the confusion in the public s mind as to which council does what. Even the Lincolnshire County Council Leader, Cllr Martin Hill, seemed to be in favour of a change, or at least he was at Christmas 2011 when he advocated turning the present Lincolnshire County Council into a single massive unitary authority an idea he rapidly withdrew because of the flak, one presumes, he got from the mainly Tory District Council leaders. What about the Town and Parish Councils? They would remain and their role could be enhanced. Towns such as Grantham and Spalding could join the other major towns in Lincolnshire with having a democratically elected Town Council as well. With the Power of Competence bestowed on them they could take over more responsibility from any unitary authority. Town/cities like Lincoln and Boston could retain many of their current responsibilities through the same process. Previous attempts to introduce Unitary Authorities in Lincolnshire Some of us have vivid memories of what happened in 1992 when the County and District Councils responded to the Banham Commission s request for bids. All seven Districts and the County decided to put in an individual bid for unitary status. All bids were rejected, the Districts being considered too small to run a proper unitary authority and the County being considered too large. However, John Marriott remembers talking to the Labour Deputy Leader of the Lincoln City Council at the time, who told him that both Lincoln and NKDC were asked by the Banham Commission to consider a fall back position, which could have meant these two areas combining to form a unitary authority. Unfortunately agreement could not be reached with the Conservative Leader of NKDC and so the idea never really got off the ground. In the review at the end of the last decade, the view was expressed, amongst others by Steve Leach, Emeritus Professor of Local Government at De Montfort University, who was commissioned by the county and districts to investigate the political structure in the County, that the three tier system was the way we did things in Lincolnshire. UA models for Lincolnshire The following section simply gives examples of how Lincolnshire could be divided up into Unitary Authorities. It is in no way proscriptive and, in any case, if we were to go down this route, it would not be up to political parties or groups to draw up the boundaries. Let us say first of all that we would not favour a single unitary authority for the whole of Lincolnshire, which is what the Leader of the County Council seemed to be proposing before Christmas The County is just too large for this to work effectively. 5

6 6 You could make a strong argument for two or even three unitaries, which is somewhat ironic as this is what we basically had before the Local Government Act of 1972 (admittedly with RDCs as well). One arrangement (Option 1 in Appendix 3) would be to combine West Lindsey, Lincoln City, North Kesteven and South Kesteven into one authority (we just about have this now with the new Central Lincolnshire Planning Committee) and to form a second authority from East Lindsey, Boston Borough and South Holland. An interesting variation might be to allow East Lincolnshire access to the A1 corridor by linking the area around Stamford to South Holland and allowing Grantham and Bourne together with their surrounding areas to remain in West Lincolnshire (See Appendix for approximate population figures). These areas are also currently working more closely together in planning terms. It would, of course, entail messing about with South Kesteven s borders. No combination is without its problems. For example, there is a strong affinity in parts of South Holland with Norfolk, as similar affinities in South Kesteven with Cambridgeshire and in West Lindsey with North Lincs UA and South Yorkshire. However, broadly speaking, the arrangements proposed here could work, albeit with the population of West Lincolnshire UA much larger than that of East Lincolnshire UA. As far as the number of councillors is concerned, around 90 for West and somewhat less for East would make sense. There is one difficulty. What should we do with Lincoln City, which is so much bigger in population than all the other towns in the county and has traditionally had control over much of its affairs. Perhaps a watered down District Council status ( by using powers of competence) could be retained, giving Lincoln stronger powers than, say, towns such as Horncastle, Gainsborough, Skegness etc., whilst Boston may also be able to enjoy an enhanced status on the lines of Lincoln. Other Alternatives The arguments for unitary administration therefore revolve around the number and size (area and population) of each unitary Council. The accepted population size for a unitary Council to provide full and effective services is around 250,000. However, smaller unitaries can work. The two unitary Council arrangement of combining West Lindsey, Lincoln City, North Kesteven and South Kesteven into one authority and forming a second authority from East Lindsey, Boston Borough and South Holland has problems, namely the large population discrepancy for each unitary ( especially if you put South Kesteven entirely in the West) and the massive distances from north to south. To alleviate the population problem, it may be possible to split South Kesteven between the east and western unitaries or by permitting East Lincolnshire access to the A1 corridor by linking the area around Stamford to South Holland and allowing Grantham and Bourne together with their surrounding areas to remain in West Lincolnshire (See Appendix for approximate population figures). An alternative approach is to have three unitary Councils within Lincolnshire County Council area (Map 3 ) by combining South Kesteven with South Holland; an amalgamation between East Lindsey and Boston Borough and finally a West Lincolnshire with North Kesteven, Lincoln City and West 6

7 7 Lindsay. The Western element is slightly overpopulated and the East slightly underpopulated. However a distinct advantage over the 2 unitary Council model is the smaller areas to manage. The above two alternatives have been suggested by using existing district boundaries A more radical Alternative This is to include the existing Unitary Councils of North and North East Lincolnshire in a complete revision of boundaries to result in 4 unitary Councils for the whole of Lincolnshire (Map 4). An extra two tiers could be abolished and huge cost savings achieved through the abolition of Humberside police, Fire and other Humberside residual agencies. Lincolnshire would be whole again. There would be a huge problem in re-drawing the East Midlands regional boundary and ensuring engagement with the existing unitary authorities but the advantages are self evident with the smallest number of unitary authorities, the biggest savings and the compactness and similar population sizes of all prospective Councils. Other Alternatives During our consultations, one option that has been put forward is that we take the Humber to Wash proposal, as above, but draw the lines differently (Map 5), namely by combining the current North Lincs UA with West Lindsey as one unitary authority, NE Lincs with East Lindsey to form a second, Lincoln City and NKDC to form a third and SKDC, Boston and South Holland to form a fourth. The only problem we see here is that the population of the Lincoln/NKDC authority at around 190,000, would be considerably smaller than the other three. There will, of course, be some initial costs, as it may be necessary to contemplate some redundancies. These could be offset by the sale of certain assets. In any case, if examples elsewhere are anything to go by, the monies released would more than compensate. The next steps The following Motion was put to the Lincolnshire County Council at its meeting on Friday, 14 December by the Liberal Democrat Group by Group Leader Cllr John Marriott and his Deputy, Cllr Reg Shore: In view of the LGA forecast of a shortfall of over 19 billion for local authorities by the end of this decade, and the fact that rural counties that have recently introduced unitary authorities have all reported large savings over the last three years (in one case of over 85 million), the County Council commits itself to a comprehensive review of the council structure in Lincolnshire, with particular reference to the possible abolition of both County and District Councils and the introduction of unitary authorities, either based on the current political boundaries within Lincolnshire or, in consultation with our northern neighbours, on the establishment of unitary governance from the Humber to the Wash. 7

8 8 Unfortunately the other political parties chose not to support our motion, with the Conservatives and two Independents abstaining and the Labour Group and the Leader of the Independent Group voting against. The campaign for Unitary Authorities for Lincolnshire will form a major component of the Lincolnshire Liberal Democrats campaign in the County Council elections in May Change, in our opinion, cannot be avoided. Appendix 1 Approximate population sizes of current Local Authorities in Lincolnshire District Councils West Lindsey 89,200 Lincoln City 93,500 North Kesteven 107,800 South Kesteven 131,000 East Lindsey 136,400 Boston Borough 64,600 South Holland 88,300 Total 710,800 (the approximate size of an All Lincolnshire Unitary Authority) Unitary Authorities North Lincolnshire 167,400 N E Lincolnshire 159,600 Total 327,000 8

9 9 Appendix 2 New Unitary Councils since 2009 Case Study 1 - Central Bedfordshire Unitary Council (pop. 254,400) 59 councillors Prior to reorganisation, Bedfordshire comprised 3 District Councils and 1 County Council. Out of these was created 2 unitary authorities, Central Bedfordshire Council and Bedford Borough Council (pop. 157,840). It has 59 members. In its first three years of operation, the former has reduced its spending by more than 40m. Case Study 2 - Cornwall Unitary Council (pop. 535,399) 123 councillors Before reorganisation, Cornwall had 6 District and I County Council. The combined number of members went down from 300+ to 123, which, in the opinion of local Lib Dems, is still too many. The County Council was in favour and all the districts were opposed. As a result, the change to unitary is thought to have saved many services. Overall around 140m of cuts needed to be made in four years. Instead, only 70 to 80m were made in the first year, of which only 10 were to front line services. One estimate is that 50% of the rest of the savings are also due to the unitary dividend. Total savings of around 25m per year are reckoned to have been achieved Case Study 3 - Wiltshire Unitary Council (pop. 461,480) 98 councillors Before reorganisation, Wiltshire had one County Council and 5 District Councils. It was decided to create one unitary authority, although local Lib Dems would have preferred two unitary authorities. It has 98 members. It is estimated that, in the first year, around 14m was saved and many vital services were preserved. Case Study 4 - Shropshire Council (pop. 306,100) 74 councillors Before reorganisation Shropshire had a County Council and 5 District Councils. It now has 74 councillors and a Town Council was created in Shrewsbury with some assets transferred over. No figures available on savings, despite requests. Case Study 5 - Northumberland County Council (pop. 310,600) 67 councillors The last County Council elections were held in 2008 and, the following year, the six District Councils were simply abolished. The new unitary authority has 67 members and is the only one of the five where the Lib Dems are the largest group. Savings of 85,655,000 have been reported over a three year period! 9

10 10 Appendix 3 Possible permutations for UAs in Lincolnshire (there are many more) The present set up in Lincolnshire and former Humberside Option 1 Note the difference in population size, which could be significant. Option 2 Based on current boundaries Option 3 Not based on present political boundaries and Including areas currently not in Lincolnshire 10

11 11 Option 4 A more radical approach, allowing for the projected population expansion in the Greater Lincoln area. The present arrangement in the UK. 11 The areas marked in green are currently Unitary Authorities

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