What council shake-up could mean for Staffordshire

The news that Staffordshire's local councils will be scrapped and replaced with two new super authorities has not gone down well in the north of the county.

From 2028, the proposed North Staffordshire Council will replace, and amalgamate, the three areas of Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

Steve Reed, secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, said replacing the current "inefficient" system would deliver savings by reducing "wasteful" duplication and improving public services.

The Reform leader of Newcastle Borough, Jonathan Gullis, however, described the plan as a "shameful betrayal", and even the town's Labour MP Adam Jogee was scathing of the announcement saying it was "utterly unacceptable".

It also went down like a lead balloon in Leek, where Staffordshire Moorlands' Tory MP Dame Karen Bradley said she would fight the decision, which she said was "plain wrong".

This response from the market towns comes as no surprise, as politically there have been petitions, even protests, opposed to any "joining up" with Stoke-on-Trent.

The opposition is based on concerns around the loss of identity, or prioritising local and rural communities.

But the biggest worry seems to be whether this will result in taxpayers in the Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle-under-Lyme becoming "burdened" with the millions of pounds of debt racked up by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

According to one of the city's Labour MP's, that may not be the case.

Stoke-on-Trent central MP Gareth Snell claimed that in other areas that had been through similar reorganisation, they had had debt written off by government.

Snell said he planned to write to government to ask for debt relief, to give the new North Staffordshire authority the "strongest possible start".

"If you're going to reset the way local government works, reset base funding so we're not going into it with a millstone round our neck," he argued.

The MP also defended the proposal - he explained that joint-boundary working was already in place for many services, like buses, colleges and schools.

"The idea that Stoke is some sort of leper colony which has to be avoided and boxed off is frankly very insulting to my constituents," he added.

There is a question too, over what this means for council tax, which in other areas has been harmonised - so in theory, it could go up or down depending on whether you live in urban Stoke-on-Trent or out in rural Ipstones.

While Bradley has said she will fight the forced reorganisation, the Staffordshire Moorlands district council leader Labour's Mike Gledhill supports it.

"Nobody likes change" Gledhill said.

"One of the exciting things is the fact that we will have everything under that one-stop council, and that's where the buck stops - I'm in favour of it."

The council leader also believed that instead of being burdened with paying off Stoke-on-Trent's debt, a primary concern raised by residents, the new authority would in fact provide financial sustainability.

He argued this would be the result, in theory, of cutting costs, such as "the payback of not having as many chief executives, and as many public buildings".

Gledhill also explained it was not simply down to broadening the council tax income stream, but also the business rates and government grants.

Meanwhile, in the south of the county, the leader of Reform-led Staffordshire County Council Martin Murray claims the county is not getting devolved power.

Murray argues the boundaries have been politically mapped to benefit Labour - and suggests the government had no mandate for reorganisation.

While devolution - and more regions getting mayors - was promised in Labour's 2024 manifesto, completely abolishing the current local council structure, was not, he said.

The North Staffordshire authority will cover services for approximately 495,000 people.

The new southern and mid Staffordshire unitary authority will cover a huge area, and will be delivering for more than 650,000 people, and have its work cut out, Murray argues.

"We now have a huge amount of work to do to deliver this," he said.

"The workload is insane, but we must ensure no services get lost within this transition."

When asked, Murray did not rule out the idea of looking to legally challenge the government, as has happened over previously announced proposals to reorganise councils in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

But as things stand, the shadow elections for the North and South Staffordshire Councils are due to take place in May 2027, with each new authority running services from 2028.

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