Downing Street has said devolution plans aim to give more powers to local leaders amid fears that scrapping district councils could deprive people of local representation.
A redesign of local governments, expected to see district councils scrapped and more elected regional mayors brought in, has sparked fears that powers will be taken away from local communities.
Some local authorities will close under Government plans for devolution which are due to be published in a White Paper on Monday.
Angela Rayner, the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, has promised to make devolution the “default setting” under the plans.
The proposals include creating so-called strategic authorities across England to bring together councils in areas where people live and work.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said this would help “to avoid duplication and give our cities and regions a bigger voice”.
Downing Street said the changes would give more powers to local areas, improve accountability and tackle waste.
“The plans that we’re setting out today are all about giving power from Westminster to local leaders to make sure that they’ve got the levers they need to drive growth, but it’s also about having the right structures at a local level in place that means that local areas are delivering services that people care about in an efficient manner,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
The devolution plans aim to tackle inefficiencies that result in multiple layers of government in some areas, he added.
✅ Empowering communities to shape the future of their areas✅ Ending the ‘Whitehall knows best’ mindset✅ Handing mayors strong new powers backed up with the funding they need to deliver pic.twitter.com/fRLDdK0qiK
— The Labour Party (@UKLabour) December 16, 2024
“This will improve accountability. It will tackle waste. It will respond to an appetite for simpler structure, and it will result in better outcomes,” he said.
Local government minister Jim McMahon said that merging councils could save £2 billion as he confirmed in his morning media round that some local authorities would be closed or merged under the reorganisation.
There would be a statutory consultation before any authorities were changed, he said.
“If it’s a choice between £2 billion in the running cost of an organisation or £2 billion on frontline neighbourhood services, I would say that most of the public want that investment in the front line,” he told Good Morning Britain.
In areas with two-tier local governments, county council areas are subdivided into independent district councils. There are 164 district councils in England.
“We’re concerned that any creation of mega councils will prove the opposite of devolution, taking powers away from local communities, depriving tens of millions of people of genuinely localised decision making and representation,” councillor Hannah Dalton, vice chairwoman of the network, said.
She said there was little evidence that such reorganisations had saved money in the past.
Simon Kaye, policy director at think tank Reform, said the White Paper was a “welcome start” but that strategic authorities needed wider powers, including the ability to raise taxes.
He added: “There is also a risk that plans to abolish district councils will leave local neighbourhoods feeling even more neglected. The result of reforms cannot be simply the creation of ‘mini Whitehalls’ at a regional level – communities need a real say.”
Local ballots scheduled for that month would only be delayed at the request of councils that wanted to reorganise under devolution plans “to the most ambitious timetable”, Downing Street said.
The assumption was that all elections would go ahead, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman said, but could not give a deadline for when councils would need to decide whether to hold a local election.
The devolution plans are to be unveiled after ministers warned they would be prepared to step in if proposals to build more prisons, wind turbines and homes met opposition at a local level.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said Labour’s devolution policy would allow regional leaders to “guide” development projects “across areas, housing, transport and skills”.
Mr McMahon was asked about fears that urban mayors could force building targets on rural areas or that local people would be under-represented without district councils.
“The population still exists, communities still exist, and a council will still exist to run those services,” he told Good Morning Britain.
The changes were about “simplifying the system so that the accountability is strong”, he said, not to “diminish” the work that district councils and county councils had done in the past.
The County Councils Network said most of its members “recognise the need to embrace the benefits of mayoral devolution”.
The Conservatives accused the Labour Government of plans to “strip councils of their powers to make choices and to impose reorganisation from Westminster without local consent”.
Our devolution revolution will deliver the greatest transfer of power from Whitehall to our communities in a generation.
This is what the English Devolution White Paper is all about.#PowerAndPartnership pic.twitter.com/JLb0vXPH3Q
— Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Gov (@mhclg) December 16, 2024
A party spokesman said: “The Conservatives delivered over one million new homes in the last parliament, and whilst we recognise the need to build more, these must be in the right places.
“This new announcement will do nothing to solve that, and instead open up another front on Labour’s assault on the countryside.”
Westminster City Council said the White Paper would pave the way for mayors and transport authorities to get the powers to regulate e-bikes.
“It took 10 years to win the argument to devolve the power to regulate pedicabs, so I am glad this White Paper paves the way for mayors and transport authorities to get the powers they need to implement a sensible scheme for e-bikes rather sooner,” the council’s leader said.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said its members were “open to change” but that local government reorganisation should be a matter for councils and local areas to decide, adding that “devolution is not an end in itself” and cannot distract from severe funding pressures on local services.
