The report jointly commissioned by all District and Borough Councils has been published, on a confidential basis, today. At this stage it has only been released to Members and staff in advance of it being made available on our website this Thursday (21 January).
Read the report, background and what happens next here…
You might recall that –
- July 2020 Secretary of State announced that a Recovery and Devolution white paper would be published in early autumn. It was anticipated that this would vigorously encourage devolution and the creation of additional unitary authorities
- Leader of Surrey CC wrote to the Secretary of State asking to be invited to submit a business case for the creation of one single unitary across Surrey
- Various District and Borough Councils (Ds and Bs) considered reports/motions at Council meetings
- 22 July MVDC debated and agreed a motion
- 23 July Leaders of all Ds and Bs jointly wrote to Secretary of State asking that, should Surrey CC be invited to submit a business case, the Ds and Bs be invited to submit one too
- Ds and Bs agreed to commission KPMG to help them explore which local authority model would work best for Surrey and help develop a business case for change
- September 2020 Government announced delay to White Paper (currently thought to be next autumn at the earliest)
- Surrey CC Leader announced that he had received a letter from the Secretary of State to confirm that Surrey would not be invited to submit a bid at that time
- Leaders agree to refocus the KPMG work – While this was to continue to explore models of governance across Surrey (in order ensure that Ds and Bs would be well placed to respond in the future should they need to do so) it would primarily focus on how authorities could collaborate more in the future
The KPMG work is now complete and the report is available here. In reading this report it is important to remember that this is a consultant’s report it is not the agreed position of the Council. Members are meeting on the 26th January to discuss the report so I will be able to share a further update with you after that.
In the meantime, some points to note –
- There was absolute consensus among all D and B leaders that the timing is not right to consider local government re-organisation
- There was strong support at the current time for an enhanced two tier model with greater collaboration (including shared services) among authorities
- In the event that re-organisation is forced upon us in the future and enhanced two-tier was not acceptable then there was no support among D and B Leaders for a single unitary model of governance
- Eight key collaboration opportunities were identified by Leaders (see report). They believed that they have the potential to foster closer working relationships, improve resilience and deliver financial savings
- It was noted that collaboration could help strengthen a potential future case for an enhanced two-tier model or a multi- unitary option should this become necessary
- Not every local authority will be involved in each collaboration it is for each to decide which ones they are interested in progressing further
I hope to be able to confirm after the 26th which areas Members are keen for us to explore further. In the meantime, should you have any concerns please do not hesitate to email me.
Karen