What we know about reported plans to scrap some local councils

Several district councils are set to be abolished and merged, according to plans reportedly being drawn up by government ministers.

The aim of the radical overhaul - which, according to the Times, will be set out by the government in the coming weeks - is to improve efficiency in the way local authorities operate.

For example, the newspaper says district councils are viewed as an obstacle to building as councillors often turn down housing applications. Ministers also blame them for building up cash reserves instead of spending on public services.

Government sources told the Times that they are only working with councils that are open to their reform plans, which aim to make public services more efficient.

However, the District Councils’ Network fears the plans will diminish “local democratic accountability” and questions whether redrawing boundaries on a map is a proper substitute for reforming public services.

Here, Yahoo News explains what is being proposed and how it could affect you.

What are the different types of council?

Many parts of England have two tiers of local government - county councils, which provide services for the entire county, and district councils (sometimes called borough or city councils) covering smaller, more local areas.

There are currently 21 county councils across England, and 164 district councils below them.

Some parts of the country are known as unitary areas, which could cover an entire county, part of a county, a town or a city. If you live under a unitary authority, there is only one tier of local government managing and providing your public services.

A slight variation of unitary councils are metropolitan councils – set up in 1974 to cover large urban areas, and London boroughs, which are unitary authorities, although the Greater London Authority provides some services including fire, police, transport, and strategic planning.

What are councils responsible for

Councils provide a wide range of public services including social care, waste collection, schools, housing and planning.

Other responsibilities include licensing, business support, pest control, registrar services. In two-tier areas, county councils provide services that cover the whole county, including education, waste disposal and adult social care.

Meanwhile district councils provide more local services such as refuse collection, environmental health, and leisure facilities.

Which councils could be scrapped?

It is not clear exactly which district councils could be scrapped and merged into larger authorities under the latest plans, although the Times suggests Norfolk and Suffolk could be reformed in this way.

The newspaper also says Essex, Kent, Surrey and Hertfordshire could also be restructured, and are being promised more money and powers by Whitehall.

A Parliamentary report from 2020 says Lancashire and Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Essex, Nottinghamshire and Hertfordshire had all "mooted" the idea of becoming unitary authorities.

It follows analysis commissioned by the County Councils' Network, also published in 2020, which found that if the Westminster government replaced all remaining two-tier areas with unitary authorities, it would save the taxpayer over £2.9bn in five years.

The report, carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), says a number of areas had been publicly vocal about their desire for reform, including Surrey, Somerset, Lincolnshire, Lancashire and North Yorkshire.

It says that financial challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and the government at the time's "levelling up" agenda had "increased the appetite for change at both a national and local level", arguing that "the two-tier model of local government is reaching the limits of what can be achieved in different areas.

At a County Councils' Network's annual conference this month, chairman Cllr Tim Oliver said: "At the budget, the government have signalled their intention to explore local government reorganisation, creating simpler structures to support the devolution agenda."

He referred to Surrey being "marched up the hill" with plans to abolish the county's borough and district councils only for the previous government to get "cold feet" on council restructuring in 2021, with the exception of Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset, which all transitioned into unitary authorities in 2023.

"We must avoid being led up the garden path once again," Cllr Oliver added, "That is why it is critical the government provide absolute clarity on the scale of their ambitions while defining the rules of engagement in the forthcoming Devolution White Paper."

A group of MPs in Lancashire reportedly want to scrap all of the county's 15 councils and replace them with three of four local authorities under a Lancashire mayor.

What would happen if they scrap your local council?

Establishing a unitary authority means removing multiple political leaderships, which often clash with each other on issues, according to Parliament's research.

This, it says, "could make local policy-making, service delivery and planning more efficient by reducing the number of organisational partners involved".

However, this doesn't guarantee residents will receive better public services, with evidence from other countries showing "there is no automatic relationship" between larger authorities and more effective services, the 2020 Commons library report says.

It adds that there is "some evidence that larger local authorities are less ‘democratically responsive’: that is, that they can be associated with reduced public satisfaction, reduced political participation, or lower electoral turnouts".

This concern is shared by Sam Chapman-Allen, chairman of the District Councils’ Network, who told Yahoo News: "I’m not saying that lines on the map can’t change, but if you become ‘super councils’, you lose that local accountability and that local identity.

"If we harp back to the pandemic, when central government stalled and failed to deliver, it was local government, and more importantly my local district council leaders who stepped into that space, and they were the ones who were delivering those food parcels, those prescriptions, making sure that the vulnerable were supported, making sure that everyone was protected.

"All of that type of stuff are really local level district councils were able to do. Why? Because they know every mile of their communities."

Responding to some of the suggestions made in the Times' article, Cllr Chapman-Allen said: “I think if you went through all of my 169 members, the majority, if not all of them are sat on reserves because of their really ambitious regeneration projects."

On the perception of district councils being an obstacle to housebuilding, he said: "80% of all applications my members received were granted planning permission, my members are really pro-growth.”

How much debt are councils in?

One in four councils in England said they were likely to apply for emergency government bailout agreements to stave off bankruptcy in the next two financial years, according to a survey by the Local Government Association.

"With councils in England already facing a funding black hole of more than £2bn next year, the LGA survey reveals a worsening crisis with a growing number of councils being pushed closer to the financial brink," the report from October says.

The LGA says councils have faced a 22.2% real-terms cut in core spending power since 2010/11, amid rising inflation, unfunded increases in the National Living Wage, and growing demand for services.

It says a funding gap of £2.3bn faced by councils in 2025/26 is expected to rise to £3.9bn in 2026/27 and to £6.2 billion over two years.

In January, BBC analysis of figures from the Commons public accounts committee showed that UK councils owed almost £100bn to lenders, the equivalent of about £1,400 per person.

The largest average debt per resident was in Woking Borough Council in Surrey at almost £19,000, while Spelthorne Borough Council, in Surrey, had the next highest debt with more than £10,000 per resident.

Read more

• Cumbrian councils to separate the county's registration services (News and Star)

• Suffolk faces biggest council shake-up for 50 years and share mayor with Norfolk (East Anglian Daily Times)

• Greater Manchester council plans £59 charge for bin collections in major change (Manchester Evening News)