Local Government Reorganisation

Debate between Angela Rayner and Rachel Taylor

Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

Again, I have said that I want to do the review at pace and I will be working on that. I want to place on the record that there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by my right hon. Friend the Member for Streatham and Croydon North (Steve Reed) or my hon. Friend the Member for Birkenhead (Alison McGovern). They are quite correct that we must review the processes and learn lessons, and I am pleased that we will today announce the new permanent secretary in my Department, who has an impeccable track record in public service, including local government. I will ensure that we continue at pace to ensure that we get the best local government reform for the right hon. Gentleman’s area.

[Rachel Taylor (North Warwickshire and Bedworth) (Lab)]

In North Warwickshire and Bedworth, our councils, businesses and voluntary organisations were all preparing for new unitary councils. They will be disappointed with the news, but we must get reorganisation right. Will the Secretary of State assure the councils struggling to recruit and retain high quality officers, the businesses wanting to invest and the voluntary organisations preparing to restructure, that the pause will not be an undue delay and that the towns and villages in my constituency will not be left behind without the investment that devolution will bring?

English Devolution and Local Government

Debate between Angela Rayner and Rachel Taylor

Wednesday 5th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Angela Rayner]

Again, we are working with local areas to deliver devolution. This is about pushing power down to local areas and about reorganisation, and we are working with local authorities to deliver for their local area. I have been clear on the terms to which there was a 12-month delay to those elections to facilitate reorganisation and devolution in those areas. This is not a new phenomenon; it happened under the previous Government. We are turbocharging devolution so that we can deliver for local areas.

[Rachel Taylor (North Warwickshire and Bedworth) (Lab)]

I welcome the statement made by my right hon. Friend. I also draw Members’ attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. In North Warwickshire and Bedworth, my constituents can see the benefits of devolution just over the boundary in the West Midlands combined authority, and I am sure that they want to see those benefits for themselves. I ask her why Conservative-run Warwickshire county council asked to have their elections postponed. Was it because they wanted to avoid public scrutiny of their appalling record on SEND education, on fixing our rural roads and on rural transport? Does she agree that it is better that districts and counties work together to come up with the best solution for residents on devolution, and will she set out the timetable for the second stage of that devolution, so that I can tell my constituents when they can feel the benefits of investment, growth and better transport?