City, district and county councils in Cambridgeshire could be abolished under devolution plans
The city, district and county councils in Cambridgeshire could all be abolished under government plans to overhaul local government.
Devolution will be “default in our constitution” rather than “at the whim of a minister in Whitehall”, Angela Rayner said when she launched the proposals on Monday.
Under the reforms, two-tier council structures will be abolished, and every region of England will be covered by new “strategic authorities”.
Critics of the plans have however warned they could create “mega councils” and erode power at the most-local levels.
Cambridge City councillor Elliot Tong (Green, Abbey) says the government “isn’t giving power back to the community”.
“There is no doubt in my mind that local government needs shaking up, but this statement on the subject is incredibly two-faced. On one hand, we’re being told that power will be returned to our communities, but at the same time we are being ordered to prioritise economic growth as a way to prop up our failing national economy,” he told the Cambridge Independent.
He continued: “National government isn’t giving power back to the community – they’re continuing to take it away, spreading our financial and ecological resources thinner to subsidise their own mistakes.”
Last year, a campaign was launched calling for a simplification of Cambridgeshire’s highly complex system of local government.
[Nik Johnson: Devolution works and we’re ready for more]
The Cambs Unitaries Campaign – which is not affiliated with any political party – is pushing for a reorganisation of authorities within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough into at least two new unitary authorities.
A spokesperson said this week the group intends to organise a series of public meetings next year.
“The Cambs Unitaries Campaign welcomes the publication of the Devolution White Paper, particularly the proposal for the creation of unitary councils to replace the existing two-tier system.
“We look forward to further details of what this will mean for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and hope to organise a series of public meetings across the county in 2025 to get their views on how to improve our system of local governance,” the spokesperson said.
In October 2023, Cambridge City Council passed a motion which noted that “...the current fragmentation of responsibilities and decision-making presents an unhelpful hurdle to strategic focus on the big range of issues which bind the city of Cambridge, affecting lives and livelihoods of all our residents. This fragmentation frequently leaves many of our residents confused about the location of responsibilities and accountability”. From July to September, it carried out a public engagement exercise, with 507 people responding to a survey and 60 people attending two public meetings at the Guildhall to share their views.
Almost 83 per cent of respondents thought that options for a unitary authority for Cambridge should be explored in more detail.
In November, the authority agreed to discuss the findings with the leaders of other relevant authorities and civil servants in relation to the findings of the public engagement.
It also agreed that following those discussions and early evidence gathering, the leader reports to the relevant committee about appropriate next steps.
Reacting to the White Paper, city council leader Cllr Mike Davey (Lab, Petersfield) said: “Cambridge has some of the most complex local government arrangements in the country, with the district-level city council, Cambridgeshire County Council, Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Combined Authority, and the Greater Cambridge Partnership.
“We ran a survey in the summer asking whether people would like alternative governance arrangements to be explored, and respondents said they wanted more joined-up public services, with 83 per cent asking us to explore options for a unitary local government for Cambridge. So the city council is already reflecting on local governance arrangements, and working to understand local opinion, and we therefore welcome this signal from government and the opportunity for further debate to take place.
“Government is setting out its ambition to give more power to local places and local people, but there is a lot of detail still to be digested and discussed. The key for the city council will be the geographical boundaries proposed and we will do everything we can to represent Cambridge residents as these discussions progress.”
Deputy Prime Minister Ms Rayner said the government was “taking a step towards relighting the fire in our great regions”, and that the proposals would create “an economy and a society that works for everyone”.
During a speech at the launch of the government’s devolution white paper, Ms Rayner said the UK is the “most centralised” country in Europe, with “too many decisions affecting too many people made by too few”.
She said: “In micromanaging by central government and short-term sticky-plaster politics, you’ve got a doom loop of real problems going unaddressed in Britain’s regions. And there’s huge potential that’s unrealised.”
She added: “Devolution will no longer be agreed by the whim of a minister in Whitehall. It will now be default in our constitution.
“We are moving away from an ad-hoc system and towards a simpler and more ambitious framework for devolution. We will make it clear which powers go with which type of authority.
“We will bring new efficiency and accountability to local and regional government, and we will truly empower the local champions who understand their area, its identity, its strength and how to harness them.”
She continued: “There is really no good reason for ministers to sign off cattle grids or new cycle lanes.”
Those critical of the plans include the District Councils Network, which warned of the risk of removing localised decision-making.
In Cambridgeshire, the county council area is subdivided into independent district councils which include Cambridge City Council and the district councils for South Cambridgeshire, East Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire and Fenland. Local services are split, with the county council managing social care, waste disposal and major transport matters, while the districts deal with planning applications, bin collections, and leisure facilities.
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesperson said: “The English Devolution White Paper sets out a clear direction from the government. We welcome the opportunities that greater powers and more funding being devolved from Westminster to Cambridgeshire could bring and will work closely with the mayor and the Combined Authority to secure the best outcomes for our communities.
“The White Paper also sets out proposals to take forward local government reorganisation, particularly in areas where there are multiple tiers of local authorities, like Cambridgeshire.
“We’ll be talking to our partners, especially in the other councils, as we consider our response to the government on this issue. Our focus remains on delivering essential services across the whole of Cambridgeshire.”
Cllr Hannah Dalton, vice chairwoman of the District Council Network, said: “We’re concerned that any creation of mega councils will prove the opposite of devolution, taking powers away from local communities, depriving tens of millions of people of genuinely localised decision-making and representation.”
She said there was little evidence that such reorganisations had saved money in the past.
Downing Street insisted the changes would give more powers to local areas, improve accountability and tackle waste.
“The plans that we’re setting out today are all about giving power from Westminster to local leaders to make sure that they’ve got the levers they need to drive growth, but it’s also about having the right structures at a local level in place that means that local areas are delivering services that people care about in an efficient manner,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.
Some local elections planned for May could be postponed for councils undergoing a process of reorganisation.
Local ballots scheduled for that month would only be delayed at the request of councils that wanted to reorganise under devolution plans “to the most ambitious timetable”, Downing Street said.
The assumption is that all elections will go ahead, but No 10 could not give a deadline for when councils would need to decide whether to hold a local election.
The Conservatives accused the Labour government of plans to “strip councils of their powers to make choices and to impose reorganisation from Westminster without local consent”.
A party spokesman said: “The Conservatives delivered over one million new homes in the last parliament, and whilst we recognise the need to build more, these must be in the right places.
“This new announcement will do nothing to solve that, and instead open up another front on Labour’s assault on the countryside.”
