Released: 16 December, 2024
Today, the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government published its long-awaited English Devolution White Paper.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be sharing more on what it means. We’ll address how we can support local authorities, councillors and officers through the many questions that will inevitably be provoked by today’s announcements – through training, publications, and our conference in March.
But right now, we know the most important headline is that central government is expecting all two-tier (county and district) authority areas and smaller unitary authorities to submit proposals for merger into larger unitary authorities.
Newly merged councils will be expected to come together to form strategic authorities, either as combined authorities or as combined county authorities. This, in time, could allow all areas in England to be represented by directly elected mayors, governing over a ‘strategic geography’.
We will be examining the White Paper in much more detail – and offering our views on its plans for governance and scrutiny soon, and relaying these to government, and to local authorities.
But for now, we welcome that the White Paper addresses the need for good governance and scrutiny in local government reorganisation and in the development of strategic authorities. And, in particular, we look forward to being involved in discussions for the future of the Scrutiny Protocol and what this will mean for the new local government landscape in England.
We are pleased, too, that the government will develop proposals to improve the support and training for councillors, and address barriers to attracting and retaining elected members. We will submit our recommendations on this, and other matters mentioned in the White Paper, including proxy voting and remote attendance.
But lastly, we want to encourage government and local authorities – during a period of unprecedented change – to keep sight of the vital importance of governance and scrutiny as many councils look ahead to mergers and others contemplate business as usual in a period of upheaval.
While there may be a temptation to stop improvements to governance when an authority is contemplating merger, this would be a mistake. Strong governance – and a focused approach to scrutiny – will be central to how new authorities can form and develop effectively.
CfGS will support all authorities as they take their first steps on this road, and we will work with all tiers of government to make sure governance and scrutiny are a vital part of more detailed proposals as they emerge.
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