A bid to create one council for Leicestershire, saving £30m a year, has been submitted to the Government.
Two alternative plans have also been put forward. The city council is proposing to significantly extend the boundary around Leicester, while the districts and Rutland are proposing to create two unitary councils only delivering around 50% of the planned savings.
Independent national studies have shown that unitary councils can improve a council’s financial situation where larger councils are set up and can benefit from the economies of scale and avoid the costs of splitting up services.
Leicestershire County Council’s proposal would protect services, reduce confusion over who does what and give communities a stronger voice.
The county council says that bringing eight councils into one body would:
- Save £30m a year to reinvest in vital services – compared to £17m if there were two unitary councils
- Cover 734,000 residents – in line with the Government’s criteria of 500,000 plus
- Reduce the number of councillors by 2/3 from 303 to 110 – in line with other comparable unitary councils
- Create locally based ‘area committees’ – enabling local people to be fully involved in decisions that affect them and their area
Early feedback showed good levels of support for the principles behind the idea, with more than 50 per cent of the respondents rating all nine values as fairly or very important. 95 per cent of respondents agreed that better public services were important.
The Government asked councils to submit initial proposals by 21 March and more detailed plans by November. A more wide-ranging consultation is set to take place over the summer, enabling residents, staff, partners and businesses to comment on a more detailed plan. This will be shared with the Government, and with district, city and Rutland councils.
The Government wants to move away from ‘two tier’ local government and asked councils to work up ideas for unitary local government which would lead to devolution from Government.
Find out more about One Council for Leicestershire on the dedicated webpage and read the plan below.