Bay Local Authority in North Lancashire and South Cumbria

(Limited Text - Ministerial Extracts only)

Tuesday 13th April 2021 Westminster Hall

[The Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government (Luke Hall)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I congratulate the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood (Cat Smith) on securing this hugely important debate. We strongly welcome her interest in ensuring that her constituents, the businesses, local organisations and voluntary groups, and everyone who lives and works in the area, can have a real say about the future of local government reform. It is hugely important. Of course, all the hon. Lady’s constituents can continue to contribute to the consultation, which is still open. If they have not had the opportunity to do so I certainly encourage them to join the process.

Perhaps it is right for me to begin by setting out the Government’s policy. We consider that locally led changes to the structure of local government, whether in the form of unitarisation or district mergers, can be an appropriate means of improving local service delivery, saving taxpayers money and improving local accountability. We are clear that any reform of an area’s local government is most effectively achieved through locally led proposals put forward by those who know the area best. That is the essence of localism, to which we are committed. There is no question of any top-down imposition of Government solutions in that area. That brings me to the proposals that we have received from councils in Cumbria for local government reorganisation.

On 9 October last year the Secretary of State invited all the principal councils in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset, including the unitary councils, to submit locally led proposals for unitary local government. The councils in those three areas had been developing ideas about restructuring local government for some time, and were well advanced, which is why they were selected. We consider it right that Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset councils had the opportunity to present their local proposals for unitary reform. Late last year, on 9 December, we received four proposals from Cumbria councils: one from the county council proposing a single unitary council for the area, and three from different groups of district councils, each proposing two unitary councils.

As the hon. Member for Lancaster and Fleetwood outlined, one of the two unitary proposals is from Barrow Borough Council and South Lakeland District Council, which they have developed with Lancaster City Council. Under the current statutory process, only councils which have received an invitation can submit a proposal. However, that proposal may cover areas outside of those councils. That is the case here, where the proposals submitted by Barrow Borough Council and South Lakeland District Council include Lancaster City, an approach that the city council supports.

On 22 February this year, we launched a consultation for proposals in line with the statute, which requires that before implementing a proposal a Secretary of State must consult any council that would be affected by, but did not submit, that proposal, as well as such other persons he considers appropriate. That closes on 19 April.

I know that Lancaster City Council has been working closely with Barrow and South Lakeland on their proposal, which includes Lancaster City as an area outside Cumbria that is part of Lancashire in terms of the statute. As the hon. Lady has outlined, this is known as a type C proposal. While Lancaster City supports this proposal and has been playing a part in its development, the position under the statute is that Lancaster City is not a proposing council.

We are consulting Lancaster City Council and Lancashire County Council on all the proposals put forward by the Cumbria authorities. We are also consulting the Lancashire police and crime commissioner and fire and rescue authority, along with the PCC and fire and rescue authority for Cumbria. It is also important to stress that residents and organisations in Lancaster can comment on the proposal, just like the residents and organisations in Barrow and South Lakeland.

That is extremely important feature, and the fact that hundreds of people in Lancaster City have already commented shows that the process is working; it is open, it is available, and it remains open until 19 April. In fact, we checked this morning, and—as an example—well over four fifths of email responses alone are about the Bay proposal, and nearly two thirds of the total emails for Cumbria are from the hon. Lady’s “Back the Bay” campaign. I think it is clear that we are encouraging views from anybody who is interested, whether that is businesses, the voluntary sector, organisations, or local residents in Lancaster and elsewhere in Cumbria, Lancashire and beyond.

The hon. Lady asked for confirmation that young people’s views will be taken into account, which is absolutely right and vital, and I can certainly give her the reassurance that they are submitting to the consultation. The Secretary of State has a responsibility to weigh up all the representations he receives, including from young people, and we have specifically asked proposing councils to actively increase awareness of and access to the consultation. Clearly, that would include young people as well, and they are able to use their resources to do that. In the case of Barrow and South Lakeland, with the help of Lancaster City Council, that will no doubt include raising awareness in those groups, and among those who live and work in Lancaster.

The hon. Lady also mentioned access to the consultation through the website, and she is right to highlight that the consultation website meets the commonly applied web content accessibility guidelines to help it be more accessible to a wide range of people. If she thinks there are ways that can be improved further for future consultation, of course we will be happy to listen to that.

On the wider point of access to the consultation, we ask all councils to facilitate the widest possible awareness of the consultation. We believe it is right that the councils that know their communities best and understand the requirements of local people are best placed to generate interest from a wide range of organisations using the connections and information that they have. For example, that could include a council making both the consultation and the proposal available digitally or in other accessible formats. It is also important to put on record that people can respond in writing or by email to the consultation, and the details of that are available on the consultation website. Councils can, of course, use that to promote access to the consultation, including to the groups that the hon. Lady has highlighted.

I just want to touch on the elections. As the hon. Lady will be aware, this year’s elections to the principal councils in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset have been rescheduled to May 2022. There is precedent for such a one-year postponement of elections where unitarisation is under consideration. For example, the same occurred in the Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire unitarisation exercises.

Rescheduling those local elections avoided creating a situation where the electorate would be asked to vote for councils a short time after being consulted on proposals that, if they are implemented, would result in the abolition of those councils. Rescheduling the elections also avoids members being elected to serve for potentially very short terms, a maximum of two years, where a shadow authority is established.

The order that postpones the elections also extends for a year the terms of office of councillors who would otherwise have retired following the May elections this year, and makes consequential provisions to ensure that by-elections to vacant seats can still take place. The order postponing the elections has been made without prejudice to any subsequent decisions on the unitary proposals that are under consideration, and does not affect the police and crime commissioner elections, the town and parish council elections or any other scheduled by-elections, which will still occur on the 6 May.

In practice, that means that elections to Lancashire County Council will go ahead in May this year, unlike elections to Cumbria County Council. That reflects the fact that, whatever Cumbria proposal may be implemented, there is no possibility of Lancashire County Council being abolished. In May of this year there are no ordinary elections to the city council.

Following the consultation, the Secretary of State will carefully consider the proposals and has a duty to take into account three criteria if the proposal were to be implemented: whether it would be likely to improve local government and service delivery in the area; whether it would command a good deal of local support; and whether it would lead to unitary councils covering a credible geography. The representations that the hon. Lady has made today and throughout the process will be taken into account as part of that.

The Secretary of State will then decide, having regard to all of the representations he has received on the proposals, including those received through the consultation exercise, and all other relevant information available to him, which proposal, if any, to implement. We envisage those decisions to be taken and announced before the summer recess.

If the Secretary of State decides that a proposal should be implemented, he will seek parliamentary approval for the necessary secondary legislation. Clearly such an order would need to be considered and approved by each House. If Parliament approves legislation implementing any proposal, the rescheduled elections in May 2022 would be cancelled. It is envisaged that they will be replaced in May 2022 by elections to either the new shadow authority or a continuing authority, which is to be the new unitary authority.

The expectation is that any new unitary authority would take on the full powers of a unitary authority from 1 April 2023. Those elected to the shadow or continuing authority in May 2022 would continue as members of the new authority, most likely serving a total five-year term, one year as members of the shadow or continuing authority and four years as members of the full unitary authority.

I am grateful we have had the chance to have this debate and to the hon. Lady for her speech and for putting on record all of the points she has made. I hope she understands that I cannot comment on the individual representations that she has made about the quality of any of the submissions, because the process is ongoing, and I encourage people to continue to take part in that until the 19th of this month.

By submitting their proposals for unitary local government, councils in these areas have an important opportunity to move forward with reforms, which can open the way to significant benefits for local people and businesses, delivering service improvements, facilitating economic growth and contributing to the levelling-up of opportunity and prosperity across the country.

Question put and agreed to.