The starting gun in the race for a new wave of unitary councils and city regions was fired this week, in the form of the long-awaited local government White Paper announced today.
The paper is expected to include an open invitation to all two-tier areas in England to put forward submissions for new unitary councils in the next six weeks.
And it is also set to invite all eight core cities to submit their own individual cases for more strategic powers, which must include new governance arrangements.
There are also plans to give ward councillors budgetary powers for new neighbourhoods, and slash the number of performance indicators by two-thirds.
Local government minister, Phil Woolas, said: ‘This will be a radical White Paper, proposing the biggest shift to devolution in two decades – and it’s got the buy-in across Whitehall. People who understand local government will see it as a substantial document.’
But it is plans for unitaries which will cause the greatest short-term interest among two-tier councils, although Woolas insisted these were ‘not a major part of the White Paper.’
After months of speculation as to whether structure was on or off the agenda, the paper will confirm it is definitely on. Nor will submissions be expected to have unanimous buy-ins from all councils affected, so long as value for money and efficiency criteria are applied. Woolas added: ‘We won’t expect the council tax to go up as a result, but we won’t rule anything out. And we will also welcome new governance ideas.’
No guidance on unitary size is likely, therefore encouraging city boroughs such as Norwich, Exeter, Ipswich and Oxford, which have already made unitary bids.
The White Paper is likely to promise more strategic powers to the eight core cities in areas including transport and regeneration, conditional on their submitting plans for new governance arrangements. The deadline will be months rather than weeks.
However, in a sign that the Treasury has won its battle against one-size-fits-all city regions and elected mayors, local government ministers are expected to welcome ‘bespoke’ governance models.
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