Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, for what reason (a) he has not used and (b) does not intend to use his powers under Section 2 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 to invite proposals from local authorities in Dorset for single tier local government.
The Government's approach to unitarisation in Dorset is that proposals for unitarisation should be wholly locally led at the initiative of councils in the local area, rather than in response to a Government invitation. This is in line with the Government's wider policy in the Department's Single Departmental Plan published on 14 December 2017 which is 'to consider unitarisation and mergers between councils where requested'.