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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2025 to Question 24794 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of breaking up a county council social care department into multiple unitary councils on economies of scale.

The case for unitarisation in the English Devolution White Paper set out the opportunities available to areas for local government reorganisation. We will prioritise the delivery of high quality and sustainable public services to citizens and communities above all other issues. Unitary councils bring lower and upper tier services together, creating opportunities for service transformation which can support improvements in delivery.

The potential impact of local government reorganisation on individual areas will be a matter for local councils to consider as they develop their proposals for reorganisation. As set out in the published criteria for proposals, unitary structures must prioritise the delivery of high quality and sustainable public services to citizens; proposals should show how new structures will improve local government and service delivery and should avoid unnecessary fragmentation of services.