There could be trouble ahead reorganising Surrey Councils.

 

Surrey’s 11 district and borough councils’ local government reorganisation proposes a model dividing the county into three unitary authorities.

However, Surrey County Council may have other ideas!

The county council has a very different view. It will consider the proposals it will put forward at a meeting to be held today (Tuesday)

JIM MCMAHON OBE, MP Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, said

We know that councils of all political stripes are in crisis after a decade of decline and instability. Indeed, many councils asked the government for support this year to help them set their budgets.

As time runs out for ‘Your Waverley and – the Waverley Web, Surrey is in the  Government’s first wave of local government reform, which ministers say is necessary to unlock the benefits of devolution.

D-Day for lodging options for the government is at the end of this week. March 21.

However, the 12 boroughs and districts—including Waverley, which has already been cosied up to Guildford—may find themselves in a fight.

 Government restructuring of Surrey’s councils and others across the country could generate significant financial savings by reducing the number of elections, councillors, and senior managers and eliminating service duplication.
However, recollections may vary about how much money can be saved!

Some analysts suggest that while two unitary councils could save around £35 million annually, the three-unitary model—covering northwest, southwest, and east Surrey—would offer greater local accountability and align more closely with the county’s existing economic and geographic identities, despite achieving slightly lower savings of £20 million per year.

Here are the county council’s predicted savings, which may reveal what Surrey’s Leader, Tim Oliver, wants.

Benefits and costs are estimated over the period 2025/26 through to 2031/32, five years after the new authorities are expected to be established.

SCC modelling has been carried out on base (more prudent) and stretch (more ambitious) scenarios for each option of one, two or three unitaries. The table above summarises the initial modelled ongoing annual net benefits or costs five years after the creation of the new authorities, when a new steady state should be reached, for the mid-point between the base and stretch scenarios for each option.

Debt is a key consideration in Surrey, and whilst there are known positions concerning Woking Borough Council (Debts of circa £2b), other areas concerning unaudited accounts need to be clarified. These will need to be discussed with the government in the run-up to a final submission to fund a sustainable solution for future unitaries.
The cost of establishing the new authorities and delivering the changes required to achieve the transformation benefits has also been estimated. This includes the cost of redundancies and early retirement, programme and delivery team, IT consolidation and change, branding and communications, costs for the new authorities in their shadow year, and costs associated with closing down the old authorities and creating new ones.
Given the level of uncertainty, Surrey CC has included contingency for all costs except redundancies, which are directly linked to the workforce savings estimated in each scenario.   This summarises the initial mid-point estimated implementation costs for each unitary option here.

Watch this space. There could be trouble ahead!

One thought on “There could be trouble ahead reorganising Surrey Councils.”

  1. Readers must take into consideration a wider landscape.
    London will gobble up the northern part of the County. Leaving a runt South of the Reading Dorking line.
    Yes. You’ve read this before.
    MM isn’t in the habit of repeating. But take a moment and consider the thinking.
    London needs revenue to run services and the payoff is London extends it’s transport and taxation South deep into Surrey.
    The rest can just about cover it’s cost.
    Divide in three and it all goes broke and London will pick up the bits of the carnage on the cheap. Kaiser Tim can have a micro Empire. But that won’t last long. Time passes and pension awaits. It will be a short reign of ignominy. He forever known for the catastrophes of Brightwells and the Farnham Infrastructure Plan.
    One thing is certain.
    Nobody is going to have local borough democracy ever again.
    MM

    Reply

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