Surrey residents to learn from improved public companies

People in Surrey are set to see improved council companies centered on extra preventative care, public companies that meet residents’ wants, and sooner assist for a spread of different points below reforms introduced right this moment.  

11 District and Borough Councils and one County Council will likely be simplified into two strengthened and streamlined Unitary Authorities, West Surrey and East Surrey. The reorganisation will scale back the variety of extremely paid senior managers and councillors, and wipe away unnecessary bureaucratic boundaries. 

Bringing native companies below one-roof will imply essential companies, like housing, planning and roads, are introduced collectively to assist make faster choices, pace up housebuilding, and get very important infrastructure tasks shifting in order that native persons are higher related.  

Creating extra environment friendly authorities will lower crimson tape, duplication and pace up service supply and finish native individuals coping with fragmented companies throughout county and district councils. As a consequence, residents will obtain higher, extra environment friendly public companies which, releasing up money to be invested in native priorities.  

Minister for Local Government and Homelessness, Alison McGovern, mentioned:

Countless complicated councils and fragmented companies don’t construct group satisfaction or native id – good native jobs, higher public companies and more cash for native companies do. 

This plan will allow native leaders to take the choices wanted to help native financial progress and ensure that Surrey residents get the general public companies and preventative help they want, as promised in our Plan for Change.

Local Government Reorganisation is a part of authorities’s wider ambition for kickstarting financial progress at a regional degree. Outdated layers of paperwork in English councils, that don’t replicate the twenty first Century, will likely be reorganised to unlock regional alternatives for progress, appeal to funding and extra devolution powers.  

Local Government Reorganisation in Surrey will result in:  

• Improved resident expertise and extra preventative care when accessing a number of companies. A household needing SEND, social housing and training companies will solely must contact one council quite than handed between a number of councils. This will assist households entry the suitable companies on the proper time which means extra preventative, early assist.
• Better reflection of native want by bringing collectively Housing, Children’s and Adult Social Care and Planning so housing provide meets the precise wants of residents, together with individuals with bodily, psychological and studying disabilities, and younger individuals leaving kids’s social care.
• Long-term monetary stability combining companies and delivering for a bigger inhabitants will present efficiencies, alternatives for making financial savings and delivering higher worth for taxpayer money throughout the County.
• Joined-up simpler companies will decrease the price of supply whereas bettering companies, like bringing collectively waste assortment and disposal companies to scale back landfill and enhance recycling, or Trading Standards working with Licensing groups to deal with underage gross sales of unlawful tobacco and vapes.
• More accountability for taxpayer money by eradicating blurred strains of accountability and shifting from 12 councils to 2, complaints and enhancements will likely be handled extra immediately. The present two-tier buildings are a supply of confusion – for instance, in 2018 Leicestershire County Council reported greater than 140,000 individuals referred to as the incorrect native council when making an attempt to get assist.

Local leaders in Surrey have been working intently with the federal government on an accelerated timeline to Local Government Reorganisation given the necessity to create sustainable unitary native authorities as quickly as potential. As a part of this, the federal government has dedicated to offer debt reimbursement help to Woking Borough Council, which is unable to handle this domestically.  

Further data

On Surrey 

• Surrey is presently made up of the County Council and 11 small district and borough councils, the 2 new Unitary Authorities will likely be made up as:
• West Surrey: Guilford BC, Runnymede BC, Spelthorne BC, Surrey Heath BC, Waverley BC, Woking BC
• East Surrey: Elmbridge BC, Epsom and Ewell BC, Mole Valley DC, Reigate and Banstead BC, Tandridge DC
• Full particulars of the proposal could be discovered on gov.uk right here and a Written Ministerial Statement is accessible here
• Proposed timetable:
• A Structural Changes Order to implement unitary native authorities in Surrey will now be dropped at Parliament to be authorized.
• Subject to Parliamentary approval we count on the 2 new unitary councils to tackle full council roles from April 2027.
• Transitional preparations will likely be in place as quickly because the secondary laws comes into drive, together with election to the brand new councils in May 2026.
• The Government can be asserting its dedication to repay in-principle £500m of Woking Borough Council’s debt in 2026-27. This is a big and unprecedented dedication given historic capital practices on the Council.
• This is a primary tranche of reimbursement help, and we are going to proceed to discover what additional debt help is required at a later level. Any help should keep in mind worth for cash for the native and nationwide taxpayer and the Council’s continued dedication to scale back debt so far as potential inside their native capability. We have dedicated to supporting a brand new unitary authority with interim monetary help for any legacy debt servicing prices from Woking Council till a closing choice is made.

On wider Local Government Reorganisation 

• All councils’ proposals for reorganisation will likely be submitted to the Department to be assessed and analysed towards revealed standards together with supply of high-quality public companies, housing progress, efficiencies, sustainability, worth for cash. Only proposals that ship on the standards will likely be taken ahead.
• The authorities set out the case for reorganisation final December within the English Devolution White Paper (Section 4.2.3).
• Previous reorganisations have delivered:
• Savings of over £40 million in North Yorkshire anticipated by March 2026
• Savings of over £75 million since 2020 in Buckinghamshire, and supply of a Programme to harmonise programs and processes together with its property portfolio and IT programs.
• Savings of over £17 million in three years in North Northamptonshire by delivering a change programme that decreased senior administration posts, contract rationalisation, and new case administration programs.