- Conference
- 2025 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2025
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that Labour’s English Devolution white paper proposes reorganising large parts of local government. Merging many district councils into larger unitary authorities will impact local democracy and public services. Over half of the 21 county councils that had elections planned this year applied to postpone them as a result.
Councillors across many counties, have requested their councils be consolidated into a combined authority. These requests for devolution may also request inclusion of an elected mayor. Conference believes that this artificial formation of combined authorities will reduce accountability and transparency. There will be fewer elected representatives making decisions on vital services which affect people’s livelihoods. Workers in one level of council can currently be elected as councillors at another level (separate employers) – this opportunity will not be possible in the proposed single-tier mega-councils, effectively removing the workers’ voices.
Council services have suffered from over a decade of cuts. Without councillors fighting for the resources needed things will continue down that path. Under these plans, services could lose specialised knowledge and it will reduce the already limited democratic accountability. We will have combined authorities dictating the fate of services distant from them and the communities that rely on them.
The government has exalted the need for reorganisation to take advantage of new economic opportunities. But who will benefit the most? Outsourcing corporations that facilitate the privatisation of public services and make profits from what used to be public services. For example – Southampton’s council touts the Solent Freeport as an example of investment that has benefited local communities. In reality, these special tax zones are most beneficial to the private sector. When businesses move into areas like Solent due to more attractive tax arrangements, the rest of the region is deprioritised.
If the English Devolution Bill is intended to make local government more democratic, why does it enable one of the most valuable resources of local government – our public services – to be kept out of public control? Larger councils will be able to sell off more services to the highest bidder and, with fewer elections, face less scrutiny for doing so.
Conference also notes the issue of local government debt. With councillors accepting the previous Tory government’s austerity programme and unsuccessful building ventures, Woking council has £2 billion of debt. Councils across Surrey have £5.5 billion of debt. Any new unitary authorities will come into being weighed down by massive debts and tasked with administering services cut to the bone by austerity.
Conference calls upon the Service Group Executive to:
1)Highlight the negative impact of local government reorganisation on public services and local democracy;
2)Support branches in the affected areas to campaign around the defence of jobs and services and local democracy;
3)Step up the campaign nationally for all privatised services to be brought back in house, for the billions taken by central government from councils over the past 15 years to be re-invested in local government;
4)Demand the cancelling of the massive debts owed to central government by local government.
