Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of unitary local government restructuring in Surrey on the (a) number of town and parish councils and (b) band D parish precept charged by those councils.

Town and parish councils are not in scope for local government reorganisation and will continue to operate as they do now.  The power to create and restructure town and parish councils is devolved to principal local authorities, which can review and make changes to local governance arrangements through Community Governance Reviews. In doing so, they are expected to take the views of local people into account.

The Government expects town and parish councils – including new councils – to carefully consider the burden placed on taxpayers when setting their precepts. Areas considering the establishment of new town and parish councils should also think carefully about how these might be funded to avoid putting further pressure on local authority finances and/or new burdens on the taxpayer.