Local Government Reorganisation rears its ugly head once more
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.
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