Local Government Reorganisation

Lord John of Southwark Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord John of Southwark (Lab)]

My Lords, as a councillor, I have always represented about 3,000 electors, but they and I always had the certainty and clarity of where strategic responsibilities and responsibility for service delivery lay within the London borough and the GLA. I do not believe that that has historically been the case for residents, or even councillors, in districts and counties. Will my noble friend say more about how she hopes to achieve that clarity by the changes that are coming forward?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I am grateful to my noble friend for raising this very important issue. Those of us who have operated in two-tier areas would often look at London boroughs and other unitaries—the unitary of the noble Lord, Lord Jamieson, was very close to my local authority—to see that clarity is much easier for the public to understand in a unitary authority.

My noble friend is right to point out that these problems come with duplication, and there are benefits in eliminating that. For example, Buckinghamshire Council estimates that it costs around £30,000 a year just to tell people that they have got the wrong phone number. Those sums can be taken out to make that funding available to invest in front-line services.

The Secretary of State has announced an outcomes framework so that residents can see for themselves how well their council performs. But they should be judged against the same set of services and I very much look forward to the lack of confusion and to not having to have discussions, as I did many times in my own authority, about what are street trees, what are highway trees and who should be looking after which trees.