Withdrawn democracy reforms cost councils £5m

6 hours ago

Simon DedmanEssex political reporter

News image — Essex County Council has spent £3.3m on local government reorganisation

JOHN FAIRHALL/BBC A grand council chamber with councillors sat in a meeting — Essex County Council has spent £3.3m on local government reorganisation

Essex councils spent more than £5m preparing for a major shake-up of local government before the plans were withdrawn, the BBC can reveal.

The government is reviewing its proposal to replace the county's 15 councils with five all-purpose unitary authorities under local government reorganisation (LGR).

Freedom of Information requests and council documents show 11 of the 15 councils have spent a combined £5,497,711 on LGR.

Angela Rayner, the Secretary of State for Local Government, previously acknowledged a "huge amount of work" had already been undertaken.

The total spend includes five councils that worked directly on drawing up the proposals and incurred higher costs.

So far, all 15 existing authorities have received £514,000 between them to cover LGR costs.

A total of 52 full-time staff have been working on the plans across 10 councils, as well as other employees who were asked to help aside from their main jobs.

A map of Essex blocked out in five bold colours named West Essex, North East Essex, Mid Essex, South West Essex and South East Essex that represent the new five council areas being established in Essex. — The government had previously backed a five council model for Essex

Peter Harris, the Reform UK leader of Essex County Council, recently told councillors he was pressing the government for a "full reimbursement" of costs.

"This council, like many others, has had to incur considerable costs in preparing for LGR – costs that could have been avoided," he said at a meeting on 13 October.

His authority, which was run by the Conservatives until May, spent £3,341,000 preparing for LGR - the most out of all 15 councils.

The government chose the five council model for Greater Essex in March.

Within days of Reform taking over, Essex County Council sought a judicial review against the decision.

LGR plans for Essex, Norfolk and Hampshire were withdrawn by the government "in light of new legal advice" in September.

At the time, Rayner said: "I recognise the huge amount of work that has already gone into progressing reorganisation in each of these areas, and I am very grateful for it."

Ministers were due to provide an update on LGR in October.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been approached for comment.