Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to his oral contribution of 28 March 2018, Official Report, column 810 that the abolition of nine existing councils and the creation of two unitary councils would generate annual savings of approximately £28 million, what the (a) evidential basis is for those savings and (b) what the (i) baseline figure and (ii) the financial year to which that baseline figure applies are; and in what year those annual savings are estimated to begin.

The evidence for the savings, including the baseline assumptions and timings, is the material submitted by Dorset Councils, including the reports by Local Partnerships and PWC, available from www.futuredorset.co.uk and the representations made in January 2018 which I have placed in the Library of the House in response to my Hon Friend’s Question UIN 129890.