The new government’s plans to extend devolution may deliver very little unless there is a change in the overall framework, a top local authority place director has warned.
Speaking at the ADEPT autumn conference, Ann Carruthers, the organisation’s president and the director of environment and transport at Leicestershire County Council, said: ‘We know that Labour is committed to devolution and continuing to evolve the patchwork of governance we’ve got up and down the country.
‘However, there seems to be a recognition that that devolution in two tier areas really raises the question of how many layers do you need?’
Ms Carruthers added: ‘I think most of us would agree you can drive efficiencies through re-organisation but ultimately you know I think there's got to be a big concern; unless there’s more of a national mandate, there's a change to the framework in which that happens, the dangers is we do get sucked into years of discussion negotiation, shenanigans and actually very little is delivered.’
Before last month's Budget, Highways’ sister publication, the MJ, reported that the Government plans a full overhaul of local government structures to reduce the number of tiers, along with existing small unitaries that have struggled to remain sustainable.
The Budget pledged to ‘work with councils to move to simpler structures that make sense for their local areas, with efficiency savings from council reorganisation'.
This week, the MJ revealed that councils in Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey are likely to be the first to undergo unitarisation, scrapping the two-tier systems currently in place.
It added that Government sources have suggested those thought to be most receptive to the prospect of reorganisation will be prioritised.
