Andrew Griffith MP (Arundel and South Downs) has written to Angela Rayner MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, to ask why the Government is pressing ahead with local government re-organisation without setting out their real agenda and associated costs of the significant re-structuring.
In his sharply worded letter, the MP writes
“To date, your approach to local government re-organisation is a flawed and rushed process against a ‘one size fits all’ template which shows little inclination to listen to local residents. I urge you to extend the deadline by which local councils are required to respond to you until such time as you have been able to answer my questions.”
West Sussex councils – Arun, Chichester, Horsham, Adur, Mid Sussex, and West Sussex County Council - must respond to the Secretary of State by the end of this week (21st) to set out their suggested plans for how the councils could be moved into unitary authorities.
In his letter, Mr Griffith is highly critical of the imposed and unreasonably short deadline for the councils to respond. Delivery of the councils’ unified response has required many strategic meetings for their leaders to develop a common ground and an agreed way forward. This work continues this week.
The MP points out that ‘there are far more stakeholders than merely the local councils’ whose views are sought, saying that residents, council tax payers, the care sector, schools, fire and rescue services, and businesses are amongst those who should be asked for their views.
Andrew Griffith says that the changes to local government will be a top-down blueprint and ‘not rooted of any ground-up desire by the residents’. He asks the Secretary of State what evidence there is that residents will prefer or benefit from a new system of government.
The MP has specifically asked what the exercise will cost and what impact assessment has been conducted. The costs for exploring the delivery of new local government structures is not yet fully known, but he says that it ‘will come at a significant cost’, saying that he had heard it could be around £10 million of taxpayer’s money for the preparatory work alone.
The cost of delivering an unnecessary local government reorganisation could be justified if central government sets out ‘what highly certain benefits in the form of additional funding’ they will be making. Mr Griffith states that without concrete commitments there is a lack of trust. He makes the point that the single most substantive government funded project for West Sussex was the Arundel A27 Bypass which was cancelled by the Labour government within days of them taking office.
