Northamptonshire proposes replacing councils with two unitary authorities

Crisis-hit Northamptonshire’s county council and its seven district and borough councils have reluctantly proposed that they be replaced by two unitary authorities, but said it would not be a financial panacea.

The stricken Conservative-run county council, which has a budget shortfall of up to £70m, declared effective bankruptcy in February and the following month an inspector said the current structure should be scrapped.

Subsequently, the councils were “invited” by the government to submit proposals for reform and on Friday they outlined their proposals for two unitary authorities. West Northamptonshire unitary authority would cover approximately 402,000 people and North Northamptonshire would serve about 343,000 people.

The councils said: “In drawing together our proposal to the secretary of state, it has become obvious that, whilst local government reorganisation can achieve a level of cost savings, it will not in itself lead to the creation of two new sustainable unitary local authorities. Indeed, it potentially risks only redistributing the existing financial instability of NCC [Northamptonshire county council] across two new organisations, unless steps are taken to address the existing cost and income challenges.”

Last week, the county voted to reduce services to a bare legal minimum, in an attempt to close a financial black hole it says could grow to £180m within three years. Among the planned cuts it has already announced are the closure of 21 out of 36 libraries, although it has been forced to revisit this decision after a judge on Tuesday found that the decision-making process had been unlawful.

The restructuring proposal document said the savings from creating two unitary authorities would take “some years” to repay the costs of transition – including redundancies – from the eight existing councils.

Colin Copus, an emeritus professor of local politics at De Montfort University, said the restructuring would be a mere sticking plaster. “It solves the immediate problem of Northamptonshire county council in the same way that if you declare yourself bankrupt and go straight off and set up another company,” he said. “But it doesn’t address the fundamental problems local government is facing.”

Copus said English governments of all political persuasion were fixated on the idea that bigger was better. “What we really need to do is look at the fundamental problems of the restrictive financial and tax [raising] regime in this country,” he said. “What if in 10 or 15 years the two unitary authorities are suffering problems? When are we going to learn that restructuring is not the solution?”

On Thursday, Torbay council became the latest local authority to announce drastic measures in response to financial strain. The Devon council said all non-urgent spending would be halted in response to a forecast overspend of £2.8m this year.

Earlier this month, it emerged that East Sussex county council was drawing up plans to move to a bare legal minimum level of services. The National Audit Office has said up to 15 English councils are at risk of going bust.