Ministers’ plans to shake up the structure of English local government by merging councils are “ill-thought-out”, “insane” and a “bizarre diversion” that will fail to deliver savings, according to a survey of town hall leaders.
The depth of unhappiness with the plans is revealed in an annual poll of senior councillors and executives, most of whom said the changes would be costly, time-consuming and do little to address the dire financial crisis facing councils.
Most local authorities are preparing to cut local services from April while increasing council tax, fees and charges, as they battle with cost pressures that could put up to 19 town halls into effective bankruptcy over the next year, the survey found.
The Local Government Information Unit (LGIU), which carried out the survey, said the scale and speed of the proposed reorganisation had added a “new layer of uncertainty” to a sector already in a “state of crisis management”.
The government defended its plans on Wednesday night, saying it was prepared to take “tough choices” to rebuild the local government sector. It insisted it had thoroughly consulted local leaders and its ambitious timetable was intended to provide certainty for councils and increase their resilience.
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Reorganisation is a tough choice but it is the right one to end the two-tier premium and create streamlined, more accountable local government.
“We know the challenges councils are facing, which is why despite the inheritance we have been left we are making available £69bn of funding to councils across England and working with them to drive forward the government’s plan for change.”
The government’s devolution plans, published in December, include abolishing the current two-tier system and creating a smaller number of unitary authorities covering large geographical areas. Critics have called these “mega councils”.
Ministers have previously argued that effectively abolishing scores of smaller district councils would help drive economic growth, deliver significant financial efficiencies and improve accountability, despite cutting the number of elected local politicians.
The LGIU said its survey showed the vast majority of local government leaders were not onboard with the government’s plans. Many were unhappy with the costs of the changes – put at £16m per area, according to one estimate – and the amount of time and resources it was taking up.
One unnamed senior district council leader told the survey: “Reorganising local government to save money is insane. Local government has already had a 40% real-terms cut since 2010. Reorganise to deliver more local outcomes, sure, but not to save money.”
An unnamed county council treasurer said: “Local government reorganisation will be a distraction from needing to balance the books for all councils … It is making everything much more uncertain and challenging.”
A deputy mayor of a unitary council described the changes as “rushed, ill-thought-out and potentially undeliverable”, while other respondents called them a “bizarre distraction” and “the last thing we need at the worst possible time”.
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Labour made no manifesto promise to reorganise councils, and many in local government are baffled about why it has embarked on such extensive and disruptive changes when most town halls are fully focused on the rising demand for social care, temporary accommodation and special educational needs spending.
There are also concerns among Labour councillors and backbench MPs that the creation of councils with target populations of 500,000 will result in areas such as Norwich, Ipswich, Brighton and Hove and Oxford that often vote centre-left being subsumed into neighbouring Conservative-voting areas.
Jonathan Carr-West, the LGIU chief executive, said: “To put it bluntly, respondents are not happy with the way that reorganisation is being carried out. The vast majority feel that the government is not providing enough clarity, enough genuine involvement for councils in the process, or realistic timeframes.”
Council tax will rise in 94% of town halls from April, the survey found, while nearly nine out of 10 councils reported they would increase fees and charges in areas such as car parking, household green waste collection, school dinners, and burials and cremations.
Nearly two-thirds (63%) of councils said they planned to reduce spending on services from April. The areas most commonly sought out for cuts were parks and leisure centres, local business support, arts and culture, adult social care, and libraries.
One unitary council leader told the survey that local authorities would find it increasingly hard to justify council tax rises as an ever-greater proportion of resources was spent on social care at the expense of more visible “public realm” services such as parks and street cleaning.
They said: “The burden of paying for services continues to shift to our residents … In short, residents are paying more for worse public services – they can’t understand why.”
The LGIU survey, which informs its annual state of local government finance report, received 186 responses from senior elected and executive leaders at 150 unique councils in England.