Devolution Proposals

Local Government Reorganisation rears its ugly head once more

I have been trying to find time to write a blog setting out my thoughts on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), ever since the Labour Group passed a motion to merge Basildon with Thurrock back in November, which understandably raised a few hackles with my residents, given Thurrock's precarious financial position. But, in fact, LGR has been in the offing for years. It has now taken a decisive step forward, following a vote last week at Essex County Council (ECC), along with the publication of the Labour Government’s White Paper last month, which could lead to the biggest shakeup of local government since the 1970s.

LGR is a tortured subject in Basildon, where is has long been a pet project of the Labour Leader, Gavin Callaghan, who harbours a pathological hatred of ECC – though he is far from alone. Labour leaders always hate county councils. I could not possibly speculate why. Although, apropos of nothing, not a single county council in this country is run by Labour. Dissatisfaction with ECC is not, however, reserved for Labour. I remember my colleague Phil Turner, when he was Conservative Leader, advocating a break with ECC. There have been other advocates on my own side, not least my old friend the late Luke Mackenzie, who long argued passionately for unitary status for Basildon. I suspect people have been calling for Basildon to be unitary for as long as there has been a Basildon. Personally, I have tended to be a sceptic.

My gut instinct is that, whatever the desirability of unitarisation, Basildon is just too small. We do not have a big enough tax base to fund the services we would be expected to provide – highways, looked-after children, adult social care, etcetera. We currently have two existing unitaries in Essex – Thurrock Borough Council and Southend-on-Sea City Council. I think both are too small and should probably never have been made unitaries. That view seems borne out in Thurrock, where they are in a terrible financial pickle thanks to a risky investment strategy adopted precisely because they were pursuing additional revenue to fund services. Nevertheless, in recent years the clamour for reform has grown increasingly noisome.   

Indeed, so certain was Councillor Callaghan that LGR was “inevitable” that in 2019, the last time he took power in Basildon, I found myself serving on the rather presumptuously named ‘Local Government Reorganisation and Transition Committee’. It did not happen, of course. Then, as now, any one of a myriad of things can happen to snarl up these cunning plans. But LGR has hung around like a bad smell, and some form of change does now seem likely.

 

“LGR is a tortured subject here in Basildon, where is has long been a pet project of the Labour Leader, Gavin Callaghan, who harbours a pathological hatred of ECC”

 

Many of you will have seen reports that the Labour Government has invited councils to move to a new local government model, establishing larger, multi-area unitary councils operating beneath combined authorities headed by directly elected regional mayors.

As I say, this is nothing new. George Osborne advocated this years ago, and it was a pipe dream of Boris Johnson. ECC, along with Thurrock and Southend, have been in talks to establish a ‘Greater Essex Combined Authority’ for some time. Things have now progressed with the White Paper and, in addition to abolishing ECC, we could also see Basildon Council merged with one or more neighbouring authorities to form a larger single unitary, combining many of the powers from both councils into one. There would also be an elected ‘Mayor of Greater Essex’, who would have further powers devolved to them by Central Government.

ECC have now written to the Government, requesting inclusion in the ‘Priority Programme for devolution’. They have also, controversially, requested the cancellation of this year’s county elections, currently scheduled for May. The decision now sits with the Secretary of State, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, who is expected to give a yay or nay later this month.

The timescale for all of this is, of course, appallingly cynical, with the White Paper unveiled before Christmas alongside changes to the National Planning Policy Framework and the announcement of the Local Government Finance Settlement. It could not be more obviously calculated to avoid scrutiny and push through sweeping changes.

Cancelling Democracy

I will be clear. I am wholly opposed to the cancellation of the county elections in May. I listened to the debate at County Hall and, while I accept the strength of some of the arguments for cancelling them – not least the cost of holding elections to an authority that looks poised to be abolished - I simply do not believe it is justified. It will take years to set up a new combined authority to replace ECC and will mean the current crop of county councillors serving far beyond the expiration of their mandates. I do not believe that is acceptable and I believe Conservative colleagues at County Hall have been somewhat bamboozled, and are playing into the hands of Labour, who are desperate to avoid local elections in the face of their party’s increasingly stark unpopularity.

 

“I will be clear. I am wholly opposed to the cancellation of the county elections in May.”

 

In terms of next steps, I shall be watching developments closely. I concede LGR is far from ‘sexy’, and may not grab the interest of everyone, but our services directly impact your everyday life, from bin collections, street cleaning and highways, to SEN provision, schools and social care. I would encourage everyone to pay close attention to, and engage with, the discussions that will now take place in the coming weeks and months.

Allow me to dwell on the past, for a moment…

As your borough councillor, I naturally have mixed emotions about the prospect of Basildon Council ceasing to exist. The Council, in its current form, was created in 1974 as ‘Basildon District Council’ (achieving borough status in 2010). Prior to that, the Basildon Urban District Council had existed since 1955, when it was created out of the old Billericay Urban District, reflecting the growth of Basildon since the creation of the New Town in 1949. The Urban District had itself been created in 1934 out of the Billericay Rural District, a far larger district created in 1894, when local government was in its infancy, and covering an area that included much of what is today Brentwood and Chelmsford.

I have now sat on the Council for coming on 12 years, since the residents of Billericay East did me the great honour of voting for me to represent their interests in the 2013 by-election. They have subsequently re-elected me four times, which remains one of the proudest achievements and humbling privileges of my life. It does, however, still make me a relative ‘newbie’ in the context of the life and history of our borough.

 

“As your borough councillor, I naturally have mixed emotions about the prospect of Basildon Council ceasing to exist.”

 

Likewise, the abolition of ECC would end that body’s 136-year history, it having been created under the Local Government Act (1888). ECC is a body onto which I have pursued no less than three thwarted attempts to get elected over the past decade, most recently in 2021 (when I came within a couple of hundred votes of winning a seat). Ironically, the Boundary Commission only just completed a review of new county divisions, which are due to be contested for the first time this year. I had been contemplating a fourth run but that whole exercise may turn out to have been a colossal waste of time, and my long-standing ambition to go to County Hall shall remain unfulfilled.

Looking to the future

Personally, I have always been open-minded about an Essex Mayor. Go big or go home. Devolution is not worth doing if you do not go for the elected mayor and get the full raft of additional powers only available to a mayoral authority. It is not worth doing without the mayor. We have seen what can be achieved by the likes of Sir Andy Street in the West Midlands and Lord Houchen in the Tees Valley, but I think I would probably have preferred greater powers for existing borough and district councils than full, very disruptive LGR. That is, however, not the direction Labour is taking us.

As a ‘small state’ Conservative, I am inherently suspicious of these proposed 'super-unitary' councils, which I fear will be expensive to set up and take local decision-making further away from the people they are supposed to serve. But the Government wants larger councils of around 500,000 residents, and there seems little opportunity to change that.

I should stress, whatever my misgivings, it can hardly be said I have been an unalloyed admirer of the current two-tier arrangement. Too often residents are left confused over which council does what. I have had many first-hand experiences of these frustrations myself, as I am sure many of you have. Frequently, services have too much overlap, which, creates inefficiencies, while others are disjointed, leading to poor outcomes. I also believe for some services, specifically education, SEN, and adult and child social care, ECC is too large to provide a truly localised strategy to support the specific needs of our communities.

 

“I think it would make more sense to create a single ‘South Essex’ unitary, but I also feel increasingly strongly that Billericay should not be included.”

 

Whilst we currently have no idea what a future unitary council that includes Basildon Borough might look like, the consolidation of responsibility at a more local level could be for the better for Billericay, and Basildon Borough as a whole. I will be examining proposals for a single unitary authority most carefully.

Basildon Labour have made clear they want to combine with Thurrock to form a new 'South-West Essex Council' (or, as I call it, “Basrock”), which I frankly think is bonkers. Meanwhile, their plan would see Castle Point, Rochford and Southend form a new ‘South-East Essex Council’. I do not believe this will find favour with the Government, as they have specified unitaries with populations of around 500K. ‘Basrock’ would be around 360,000, as would ‘S-E Essex’.

I think it would make more sense to create a single ‘South Essex’ unitary, but I also feel increasingly strongly that Billericay should not be included. Instead, I think we should take the opportunity of LGR to finally remove Billericay from Basildon Borough, and go in with Brentwood, Chelmsford and Maldon into the proposed ‘Mid-Essex Council’ – what I am calling “Billerexit”. 

This would essentially take us back to something akin to the old Billericay districts of nearly a century ago, and to our suburban semi-rural roots.  

Billerexit

I do not believe the best interests of either Billericay or Basildon are really served by lumping us together, as we have been for the past 70-odd years. The differences and disparities between our communities have widened increasingly over the decades and are now enormous. All the Borough’s statistics are completely warped by the fact you have an area with pockets of serious poverty and deprivation tethered to an area north of the A127 that is relatively wealthy and socially mobile. It completely skews perceptions about both, particularly when it comes to accessing funding and support.

If you consider, on paper, Basildon is one of the most affluent places in Essex, with an average income of somewhere in the region of £36,500. However, that average is for the borough, not the town. The higher incomes enjoyed by residents in Billericay and Wickford obscure the fact that there are parts of Basildon with net incomes that barely exceed £20,000. This clearly disadvantages the New Town and its residents, as the Borough is not being prioritised for support as it should be.

 

“[M]y years as a Billericay councillor on Basildon Council have certainly been an eye-opener, marred by Billericay’s position as a sort of ‘whipping boy’ for many people in the New Town, thanks to persistent myths spread by Labour and the Independents.”

 

I have always hitherto been a staunch defender of Basildon Borough and bought into the ‘One Borough’ philosophy espoused by successive Basildon Tory leaders. Indeed, I was born in Basildon Hospital and, when I was a lad at Billericay School, many of my friends were from Basildon. I have lived and worked in Basildon my entire life. Up until quite recently, the proportion of my life spent living in Billericay and that spent living south of the Arterial was about fifty-fifty. Over the years, I lived in Laindon, in a flat in Basildon Town Centre, in Vange, in Langdon Hills. I feel very much a genuine ‘child of the Borough’, deeply rooted in communities both sides of the ‘127. I still feel that way, but my years as a Billericay councillor on Basildon Council have certainly been an eye-opener, marred by Billericay’s position as a sort of ‘whipping boy’ for many people in the New Town, thanks to persistent myths spread by Labour and the Independents.

There are perceptions, entirely false, that ‘posh’ Billericay has been consistently ‘protected’, and that all the money gets spent here. This is held up as the source of all the New Town’s ills and Labour and the Indies refer to us in their literature as the “Billericay-Tories”. To be fair, there is also a fair amount of snobbery directed at Basildon from Billericay, which I always deprecate, albeit on the not unreasonable grounds that our town is treated like a ‘cash cow’ by people who will never miss an opportunity to slag us off. LGR would be a good opportunity to cleanly sunder this largely loveless marriage. One big challenge will be for Labour and the Indies to decide on whom to blame their failings, once they no longer have Billericay to kick around, but I suspect the larger challenge will be convincing them that their new super-unitary can do without Billericay’s money (which I suspect it can’t). They loathe us, but they do rather like our cash!

Next steps

It remains to be seen whether Mrs Rayner will smile upon any of these plans. In any event, it will be years before any new unitaries are set up and operational. The earliest a new mayoral authority could be up-and-running is May 2026, which could mean the cancellation of borough elections that year.

Not wishing to leave anything to chance, Basildon Labour want to make sure they can dodge the elections, so have a motion going to Full Council this week to consult on changing the electoral cycle in Basildon from election by thirds (as it always has been in the past) to full elections every four years. This is how desperate they are to avoid going to the polls. They feel the need to hedge their bets by seeking to alter the electoral cycle of a council they are simultaneously trying to abolish.

"[T]aken together Labour’s proposals amount to a mishmash of new tiers of government, and probably tax-rises to pay for it all."

Obviously, other than scrapping upcoming elections, the overall impact will not be felt for a long time but taken together Labour’s proposals amount to a mishmash of new tiers of government, and probably tax-rises to pay for it all.

I do fear this is a recipe for taking power away from communities and making local government less responsive to the needs of taxpayers. We must be watchful that Middle England is not once more remorselessly squeezed with higher taxes, rural communities given yet another kicking, and Labour’s rotten boroughs given grubby handouts without meaningful public sector reform. This is on top of Labour’s anti-democratic proposals to strip councillors of their powers to vote against planning applications, and Mrs Rayner’s new top-down housing targets, which has led to Basildon Labour’s Draft Basildon Local Plan for 27,000 houses – 5,000 of them in the Green Belt around Billericay.

 

“The interests of my residents have always come first and always will do for as long as I am a councillor.”

 

As your councillor, I can only assure you that I will not take this lying down. I will not be bullied or blackmailed into accepting a form of LGR that does not serve you, my constituents. Unfortunately, this is always the Labour way – imposing change by Whitehall fiat. Conservatives have always supported greater joint working and stronger local accountability through directly elected leaders, but there are many ways to do this, and local government should be ‘local’ to residents and respect proud local identities.

I will do all I can to scrutinise and stand up to Mrs Rayner’s socialist diktats. The interests of my residents have always come first and always will do for as long as I am a councillor.

My response to the Local Plan

Reg 18 Consultation due to close

Basildon Council's new Draft Local Plan proposes 27,000 new homes 

Everyone recognises that Basildon Borough Council must positively prepare a Local Plan. It does, however, need to be the right plan – one that meets the aspirations of local people and allows our communities to grow, whilst ensuring new developments are supported by adequate infrastructure and maintains the quality of life of existing residents.

No-one will get any argument from me that we need more homes to accommodate our growing population. Even more importantly, we need homes that are affordable. As a 42-year-old man with a young family still living in rented accommodation, I am acutely aware of the frustrated aspirations of multiple generations of people in this country, for whom the dream of homeownership seems increasingly unattainable. I do not want my son to grow up in a world where only his grandparents own their own home. I am far from a ‘NIMBY’.   

 

Indeed, most people I speak to in Billericay readily accept the need for housing. They recognise that this is a plan for the next 20 years, and are pragmatic that in a borough like ours, within the Metropolitan Green Belt, releasing some land for development may be justifiable, particularly if it is not fully meeting Green Belt policy objectives. Their concern, which I share, is that we ought to minimise the loss of irreplaceable Green Belt by robustly maximising the potential of brownfield sites. They are also not stupid. They see the Labour Government’s ‘Grey Belt’ chicanery for the intentionally subjective wooliness it is. We have already seen how this slight-of-hand policy will be used against us with the recent Laindon Road planning application, passed just this week, with Green Belt land downgraded as 'Grey Belt'. 
Crucially, what people understand is that none of this works unless we plan for the right number of homes.  

"Mrs Rayner has said 'Jump', and Gavin Callaghan and his colleagues have clicked their heels and said, 'How high?'" 

In this sense, the whole starting point of the emerging Draft Local Plan, upon which the Council is about to conclude its Regulation 18 consultation, is fundamentally wrong. We need more homes, but we simply do not need anything like as many as the 27,000-plus homes this new plan proposes. This number derives from our ‘Objectively Assessed Need’, as calculated using the ‘Standard Methodology’ outlined in the National Planning Policy Framework, recently amended under the auspices of the Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, who is also Secretary of State for Housing & Local Government. Mrs Rayner's feckless algorithm is both deaf and blind to the sustainability of our existing communities, and pumps out an unjustified housing target several orders of magnitude beyond actual local need. The target being imposed on us by the Labour Government is not remotely sustainable, and legitimate local constraints like Green Belt are simply dismissed.

The 27K homes proposed in the emerging Draft Local Plan would represent a 30% increase in the Borough’s population – potentially around 65,000 new residents. This is the equivalent of building Billericay and Wickford again. The Billericay Action Group have looked at credible data from the Office of National Statistics, and they have concluded that this is 3 or 4 times greater than realistic local housing need. Of these, approx. 17,000 will need to be built in our Green Belt – over 5,000 of them in and around Billericay. Much of this land is productive farmland – vital to our future food security.
It is clear to me that the current Labour Administration in Basildon has no intention of pushing back against these high numbers or taking on their own government, as the previous Conservative Administration intended to do. Mrs Rayner has said 'Jump', and Gavin Callaghan and his colleagues have clicked their heels and said, 'How high?' Councillor Callaghan and his Labour colleagues speak disingenuously about the 14,000 people on the Council’s housing waiting list, and the 11,000 24 to 35-year-olds who are still living at home, implying these new homes are needed for them. 

"Most ‘affordable housing’ is for rent at 80% of private rental levels, while 30% is for shared ownership (part purchase), which still requires a good, typically above average, income." 

The reality is that few of them will be able to afford a new-build house in this borough. If they could, they would not be applying for social housing. Not one of these 27K homes will be a Council house. Considering that a large proportion of this housing will be high-end, it is clear the excessive number is to support inward migration, not our own people. We all know that so-called ‘affordable housing’ is a misnomer. Most ‘affordable housing’ is for rent at 80% of private rental levels, while 30% is for shared ownership (part purchase), which still requires a good, typically above average, income. We already know that many people in this borough cannot afford rents any higher that 60% market rate, so even the ‘affordable housing’ is unaffordable to them.

Specific impact on Billericay East

Specific sites of concern to me as a ward councillor are Policy IF1 for limited infill of the Break Egg Hill plotlands area, which borders the Norsey Wood Site of Special Scientific Interest. This will harm the wildlife there. The policy map, however, reveals that the site is also far bigger than the existing plotlands. Policy H1 for 1,500 homes homes on Greens Farm Lane, adjacent to Beverley Rise, The Rising and Morris Avenue to the east, with more at the junction with Outwood Common Road at Snails Hall Farm. Between the two sites there is to be a proposed extension of the Mill Meadows Nature Reserve, which I broadly welcome. I know the Mill Meadows Society and others have been working with the developer to this aim for some time. Nonetheless, Mill Meadows is largely an ‘island’ surrounded by development on most sides. The Greens Farm Lane side is currently the largest open aspect, affording a critical wildlife corridor to the meadows. Maintaining this corridor through the proposed extension is crucial, as the developments either side would effectively close off much of the current openness. I remain concerned about the reclassification of the extension as ‘strategic open space’. The amount of land that will be afforded for this purpose is now decidedly hazy. It feels to me like one of the few community benefits outlined in any of the policy areas has been quietly downgraded.  

Policy AS2 (alternative site), off Potash Road, is also in my ward and an application for a development here was only relatively recently rejected by the Planning Inspectorate. In dismissing the appeal, the Inspector made it clear the rationale for a development here was unsound. Its inclusion in the Draft Local Plan is, therefore, baffling.
The 2023 Green Belt Study

Meanwhile, a new Green Belt Study has been introduced into the Evidence Base. Their report is an outrage. Central Government were clear the old review carried out in 2017 was sound - and based on actual site visits. Yet the Council has replaced it with an inferior desktop study, with no site visits, and which employs several contrivances to justify excessive Green Belt release. The Basildon Green Belt Study Final Report 2023 concludes, absurdly, that Billericay is not a ‘Large Built-Up Area’ under Green Belt Purpose 1 (checking urban sprawl), despite similar sized neighbouring towns like Brentwood, Rayleigh, Rochford and Shenfield all qualifying under Purpose 1. The Report also concludes that the Green Belt around Billericay “is not considered to contribute to the Setting or Special Character of the Town”. This justifies their conclusion that no harm will result from releasing land under Purpose 4 (to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns).

Anyone with a brain in their head can see that being set in the heart of Green Belt is central to Billericay’s historic setting and special character. How could it not be? Where do they find the halfwitted dullards that write this drivel?

Crucially, no land in the Borough is assessed as meeting Purpose 5 (to assist in urban regeneration), despite similar reports for Rochford District Council and Southend-on-Sea City Council, undertaken by the same consultancy, concluding “all Green Belt land is considered to make a strong contribution to Purpose 5”. All Green Belt, apart, it seems, from the Green Belt surrounding Billericay.

"'...[A]ll Green Belt land is considered to make a strong contribution to Purpose 5'. All Green Belt, apart, it seems, from the Green Belt surrounding Billericay."

Ultimately, Billericay’s Green Belt is only assessed against two of the five Purposes in the latest Report, which seriously disadvantages our town. It also represents, in just 6 short years, a near-total reversal of the findings of the 2017 Green Belt Study, with land assessed as high value, being found to have almost no value at all. I have been unable to find any other local authority in this position. Every other one I have looked at is having their Green Belt assessed against at least four of the five. This would appear to be inconsistent and drastically unsound.

No more Infrastructure First

There is also scant information in the Draft Local Plan regarding provision of infrastructure and services to support these proposed developments and the people who will live in them. The infrastructure in and around Billericay is already creaking at the seams and is little better elsewhere in the Borough.

We are already struggling to meet the needs of existing residents. Our schools and healthcare facilities are oversubscribed, our highway network is crumbling. These services are unlikely to cope with this scale of housebuilding without significant investment and delivery of infrastructure first. Instead, this plan caters for infrastructure provision ‘at the point of need’, meaning only once a development has been built and has people living in it may we possibly get some infrastructure (assuming developers do not find some cunning artifice by which to wriggle out of their Section 106 responsibilities in the intervening period).

What infrastructure does come, will come in dribs and drabs and far too late. New schools, hospitals, doctors’ surgeries, libraries, highways upgrades, etc., all take years to build. By the time they arrive, if they arrive, entire generations of residents will have been failed and the quality of life of existing residents ruined. It took nearly 10 years to deliver the new school to support the development that was built on the Dry Street pastures in Basildon. That is an entire generation of failed young people, who had to commute to schools elsewhere. 

Affordability

Fundamentally, the current housing crisis is an affordability crisis. Yet there is no evidence that simply building thousands more homes will do anything to make them more affordable. Most sensible economists agree that high prices and high rents are here to stay, irrespective of local plans. We all know there is little real incentive for anyone to reduce house prices. The Government, business, existing homeowners, none of them really want to see house prices fall, least of all developers. The only people who really want prices to fall are those looking to buy. Everyone else has a vested interest in keeping prices where they are and they will do nothing to jeopardise that.

The real issue is wages, which have fallen so far out of step with house prices and rent costs. This plan does nothing to close that gap. It is simply a developers’ charter. They have lobbied, and land-banked, and sat on extant permissions, refusing to build them out. This has impacted the Council’s housing land supply and delivery targets, fuelling pressure to release Green Belt (which is cheaper to develop and more profitable for developers). They have played the system like a fiddle, and we continue to dance to their tune.  

Conclusion

This consultation has been hopelessly inadequate. Despite being critical to the future of the entire borough, impacting every resident, the Council has pursued the laziest communications strategy conceivable. If you work for a living or are not on the Internet, there is a good chance you know nothing about this consultation. You will certainly have struggled to take part in it. The Council has relied exclusively on digital channels – mostly Facebook. I have seen few physical materials or notices. The barriers faced by the elderly or otherwise digitally excluded are considerable. The Council was sluggish in providing paper documents in the libraries. We were a third of the way through this consultation before a copy was provided in Billericay Library (only one copy available and kept behind the front desk, viewable only on request). No copy was provided even to Billericay Town Council.

A live event was held at the Chantry Centre with only 4 days’ notice. Even ward councillors were not informed in advance. The event was poorly attended and badly managed. An online ‘webinar’ was similarly poorly advertised. The Council has treated residents with barely concealed disinterest, bordering on contempt. Nobody seems interested in even pretending they care what residents think. The whole thing feels like a box-ticking exercise.  
Nevertheless, I strongly urge anyone who has not yet done so, to respond to the consultation before it closes on Sunday (January 12th).

 
Have Your Say Today - Basildon Local Plan - Commonplace

Labour's Draft Local Plan does nothing to benefit local people in Basildon Borough. If this plan is adopted, the housing ladder will remain as out of reach to us as it is today and will only exacerbate the other problems our communities face by overwhelming their local services. This is a plan to pointlessly sacrifice large swathes of the irreplaceable Green Belt that keeps our historic towns and villages separate and distinct. It will result in the coalescence of Billericay and many of its surrounding villages and lead to urban sprawl. More generally, it will turn Basildon, Billericay and Wickford into one giant overbuilt conurbation, with overwhelmed infrastructure.

We need a good Local Plan. This is a bad Local Plan. I will not support it and will vote against it at every opportunity. 

Review of 2024

 A difficult year but far from an annus horribilis

As we enter 2025, I wanted to say a few words about how things went during 2024.

Every year is a mixed bag but I can think of few years that have contained more dizzying personal highs, and misery-inducing lows than 2024. It is certainly not a year I shall ever forget. On the international stage, the appalling wars in the Ukraine and the Middle East continue unabated, while at home my party, the Conservative Party, suffered the most catastrophic General Election defeat in a generation. 

Westminster

Labour won a landslide election victory in the snap election called by Rishi Sunak in July, bringing to an end 14 years of Conservative rule. It was my party's worst electoral defeat in its long history - our largest defeat in purely numeric terms since 1761. We lost 252 parliamentary seats and saw Sir Keir Starmer walk through the famous door to 10 Downing Street as the new Prime Minister at the head of a Labour Government. Locally, our own long-serving Member of Parliament, John Baron, C.B.E., retired after 23 years service. Richard Holden, outgoing MP for North-West Durham and then Conservative Party Chairman, stood in the seat to succeed him, but won with only a rather sobering majority of just 20 votes, where John's majority had previously been over 20,000. My friend Stephen Metcalfe, formerly MP for South Basildon & East Thurrock, sadly lost his seat to a Reform candidate (who, it later turned out, had criminal convictions for assaulting his ex-partner). 

 

To be honest, I could probably write an entirely separate blog just on the subject of the Tory Party's sad and sudden descent into the political wilderness, so I have not the heart to write it here. Suffice it to say, coming so soon after the heady days of 2019, when Boris Johnson won us an 80-seat majority, to watch the party I love and have devoted myself to implode in such a spectacular fashion was far from being one of this year's highlights.  

The horrific election result has necessarily led to an ongoing period of reflection and introspection within the Conservative Party. Following Mr. Sunak's inevitable resignation, the Party held a leadership election, which has resulted in the Rt. Hon. Kemi Badenoch, M.P. (Con, N-W Essex) taking up the reigns - becoming the fourth female Tory leader and the first black leader of a major British political party (those 'racist, misogynist Tories' strike again). In a social media post that aged like milk, I declared for James Cleverly the day he was eliminated from the contest. Now that Mrs Badenoch is in post, she will have my undivided loyalty. She must unite the Party around her, as we begin to rebuild. The vital importance of this period of renewal can hardly be understated, as the consequences of this Labour Government begin to be felt throughout our communities. A renewed and refreshed Conservative Party is badly needed, and cannot come quickly enough.

 

Whether it is the attacks on pensioners and farmers, 'freebiegate' or the Sue Gray débâcle, Labour's apparent determination to completely dismantle the highly successful educational reforms of the past decade, or their threats to concrete all over our Green Belt, I cannot think of any other government in living memory that has come off the rails quite so quickly. They are a disaster. And, as the consequences of Rachel Reeves' budget really start to bite, things will only get worse under Labour.  

 

Closer to home

Locally, as always, Conservative councillors continued to work hard for residents. I started the year grappling with the threatened closure of the Billericay High Street Post Office, which had been based in the One Stop convenience store. Fortunately, through the good offices of John Baron, we held a number of constructive meetings with Post Office Limited and, with support of colleagues, were able to secure a new main counter service. I was pleased to see the Mayor of Basildon at the ribbon-cutting ceremony and services re-provided in the old Coleby's jewellers.

The other big issue looming over us, as it has for years, was the Local Plan. Following the decision of the Conservative Administration to withdraw the previous Submission Local Plan in 2022, the Council remained under pressure to deliver a new Local Plan. As Tories, we were girding ourselves for a fight, even with our own Government if needs be, to defend the Green Belt around Basildon Borough. We had some early successes and I was delighted in late January, when the Planning Inspectorate rejected the appeal against the Council's refusal to grant planning permission for 150 houses and a care home on Green Belt land off Potash Road. I was also able, with support from the Billericay Tree Wardens and the Norsey Wood Society, to secure the Norsey Road Woodland Order to protect the woodland within rear gardens abutting Norsey Wood. We also had Norsey Meadow designated a Local Nature Reserve, offering yet further protection.

Sadly, before we knew it, the May elections were upon us. A boundary review had taken place, altering some ward boundaries, which meant the Council had to be entirely reconstituted. It was Basildon's first 'all-in/all-out' elections in over 20 years. Both my ward colleagues - David Dadds and Stuart Sullivan - had represented Billericay East since the last 'all-out' but both retired this year. I was pleased to be joined by two new ward colleagues - Andy Barnes and Martyn Mordecai. I will confess, however, while I was pleased to be re-elected, it was particularly gratifying to top the poll, even though I was at the bottom of the ballot paper. This was my fifth election in Billericay East and I never take the result for granted. It was a humbling endorsement from my constituents, made the more poignant by the fact that I also became a father for the first time the same night (meaning I missed the election count for the first time in 14 years). 

My son, William, was born on May 2nd - Polling Day, of course! He is my first child, a little brother to my stepdaughter Poppy, and the whole family are completely smitten with him. This introduction of new life came after the sadness of March, when my dear friend, Luke Mackenzie, then Mayor of Basildon, passed away at the young age of just 37, after a brief but valiant battle with cancer. Luke and I were old friends and it was he who recruited me into politics in the first place. His death was a terrible personal blow, and a great loss to the Borough.  

The local election results were a disastrous foreshadowing of the General Election to come. Basildon Conservatives lost control of the Council, reduced to only 13 councillors. I have never known there be so few of us. The Tory Group is now the smallest since the late 1990s. Labour have taken up administration, backed as usual by Basildon's motley collection of 'Independents'. The national picture played its part, of course, but there is no denying the part played by our less than entirely successful changes to waste (ubiquitously known as 'bingate').  

The election necessarily brought an end to my time in Cabinet. I headed the Housing portfolio for 3 years. I am extremely proud of what I and my officers achieved over that period, particularly the creation of Nevendon Place - my homelessness facility in Pitsea. The Council also ended my appointment as a trustee of the Billericay Educational Trust, so I was pleased to re-join in a personal capacity. I am adjusting to my new role in Opposition, having been appointed to the Performance Scrutiny Committee and the Standards Committee.    

Labour's first act was to pension off the old Chief Executive and start restructuring the Council. They now have us borrowed up to the hilt to the tune of millions, which they ploughed into buying up real estate in Basildon. Like their Westminster counterparts, Basildon Labour are never happier than when spending other people's money. I think we shall probably need to brace ourselves for a whacking rise in Council Tax come the budget-setting in February. Goodness only knows what will happen if they are successful in merging Basildon Borough with Thurrock, as is their stated aim.

Albeit now in Opposition, Conservative councillors continue to work hard. I finally got those street lights fixed between Crown Road and Jacksons Lane. Thanks are also due to my county colleague, Cllr. Anthony Hedley (Con, Billericay & Burstead), for finally securing full resurfacing of Hillside Road, Chapel Street and Valley Road, all badly in need to investment for some time. It is also largely through his good offices, as former Cabinet Member for Business Engagement, that we have the Billericay Business Improvement District. We also saw the opening of the long-awaited new play area and skate park in Lake Meadows, along with a state-of-the-art Changing Places toilet facility. Colleagues and I are still lobbying for improvements to local bus services, as well as raising residents' concerns about the proposed National Grid pylons, and closure of South Green GP Surgery. Nothing, however, will be more important than fighting Labour's new Draft Local Plan for 27,000 homes (grossly in excess of realistic local need). The Regulation 18 consultation is due to end on January 12th.    

Looking forward

We have sound mountains to climb in 2025. With no borough elections scheduled this year (and an increasing likelihood that the scheduled county elections will be cancelled as part of Labour's proposed reorganisation of local government), Labour have control of the council in Basildon and of the government in Westminster, and they have the time to inflict their terrible plans. But we shall continue to fight the good fight. There will be challenges ahead but, working together, I know we can continue to achieve good things. 

I wish all of you in Billericay East, or wheresoever you may be, all the best for a very Happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.