Councillor Graham Alleway

I have tried to dilute the Local Government language as much as possible into plain english. The situation with the changes proposed is still fairly fluid but you can see the agendas. The below is my interpretation.

Roughly about 10-15 years ago the Government proposed to devolve powers from Westminster to regional authorities for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England is in the process of Devolution with Unitary Authorities and new mayors; many are already in place. On top of this will be some regional boards across some Unitary Authorities that could include Planning and Transport powers etc. 

Its Surrey's turn now with the imposition of Unitary Councils which means Surrey County Council and all the Surrey Borough Councils will be dissolved in May 2027. Surrey County Council leader suggested splitting the County into 2 Unitary Authorities made up of current Borough areas. The Borough Council leaders oppose the split into 2 in favour of 3 Unitary Authorities. The County Council had to consult residents of Surrey for their views and preferences on the Surrey County Council website.

The claim by the government is that Unitary Councils will simplify residents engagement for services, save money by reducing duplication of staff, and bring better accountability to residents with Neighbourhood Area Committees (NAC's) being established. 

There may be a case for operating cost reductions, but reduction in debt is less clear. Simply search for Unitary Councils budget deficits and existing debt, some examples are listed below. You will notice none of the proponents of Unitary mention an objective of reducing council tax which I think all would welcome, and that is because that won't happen. Anything saved will go towards budget deficits or supporting political party projects,

As for better representation of each community; it appears that establishing Neighbourhood Area Committees (NAC) will deliver local representation. These appear to reflect the old Local Area Committees which were scrapped as ineffective talking shops. A number of pilot NAC are in progress, but the expectation is that live NAC will be controlled by Unitary Councillors who are the only ones to have voting rights. This means devolution of powers and decision making to the grass root Parish Councils may not be achieved, especially where the councillors are political party affiliated where residents come 2nd to party policy and whipping of councillors to vote as they are told by the party chiefs. In my view there should be no party political councillors in Local Government, candidates must have lived in their Ward for 2 years to stop the remote paper candidates, and have no other significant commitments preventing them delivering full attention and commitment to serving residents. It appears that in May 2026 the existing County Councillors will automatically morph into shadow Unitary Councillors, so no change there until May 2027 when new Unitary Councilors will vie for election. At this point the Surrey County Council and Surrey Borough Councils will be abolished.

Reductions in running costs may be achieved, but what would the cost of Unitary creation be, and any cost savings would presumably go to debt reduction. Given the state of current Unitaries will the creation of a Surrey Unitary be worth while?

Unitary Councils finances:

Central Bedfordshire Unitary - projected overspend £32M 25/26

Cheshire West and Chester Unitary - projected overspend £47M next 4 years

Buckinghamshire - £289M Debt

Cornwall - £1.3 Billion debt

Durham - £423M debt

Blackburn with Darwen - £18.6M funding gap to 26/27

Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole - £171M shortfall by 2026

Brighton and Hove - £383M debt

Cumberland Council - £254M Debt with 17M shortfall 25/26

Herefordshire - £0.5M underspend 25/26 not sure what debt exists

Shropshire - £22M budget gap 25/26

Bedford Borough Council - £153M debt by 2027

Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council - £158M debt

North Lincolnshire - £136M debt

Bristol City Council - £229M debt

Birmingham - £6.9 Billion debt - Bankrupt

Nottingham - £22M shortfall 28/29

Presumably the options are to cut services, raise taxes and create more ways to fine people such as the introduction of ULEZ (Ultra Low Emission Zone), CAZ (Clean Air Zone), and CG (Congestion Charge), Road Tolls, and selling assets.

The Borough Council is conducting a Community Governance Review until the 19th of September 2025, (see Surrey Heath Borough Council website) which focuses purely on Surrey Heath Borough that is made up of a number of Wards represented by Borough Ward Councillors. These are elected councillors, they don't have to live in or know the Ward intimately by living there for a number of years, and if political party aligned are controlled by Party chiefs. Those councillors will likely try and become elected as Unitary Councillors in May 2027, but only a small number of the existing Borough Councillors may get elected.

Surrey Heath has 4 Parish Councils with elected councillors that must live in the Parish or meet some watered down qualifying criteria. Parish Councils are not planned to be abolished by central government and are excluded from involvement in the above Surrey Local Government Review apart from commenting. A bit ironic as the promise of devolution of powers to the grass roots elected councils was alluded to at the outset of Devolution. These Parish councils raise a precept so they can provide services, and engagement with residents in their specific Parish. This often means providing small but significant improvements to residents quality of life that Borough and County Councils are not interested in, or do not have the political will to deliver. Currently it appears there will be no, or very few elected Parish Councillors on the Neighbourhood Area Committees, but likely to be onlookers with no voting or decision making powers.

Political parties fear that losing so many Borough Ward Councillors they will lose political control, hence the Community Governance Review for Surrey Heath. The Borough proposes to create a number of new Parish Councils with precepting powers to fund their existance and exert political party control. The Government and Surrey County Council leader is not in favour of this move as it will increase council taxes, expand this tier of Local Government and likely hinder NAC control by Unitary Councilors, especially if the NAC is forced to give Parishes voting rights on the NAC. Unparished Wards can have the opportunity to establish community bodies but it is believed these will not be able to raise a precept, or members to be elected, or have any rights on the NAC. Arguably a bit of a waste of time, hence the drive to establish a number of new tax raising Parish Councils in Surrey Heath. Incidentally the structure of the Unitary and NAC's is still in the ether although pilot NAC's are in progress this Autumn, and the Government is set to rule on the issue of 2 or 3 Unitary councils for Surrey in the Autumn. It could be argued that a Surrey Heath CGR is premature and should be delayed until the structure and performance of Unitary Council and NAC's has been experienced.

So what would look good in a real chance to make meaningful change and deliver proper devolution? This is a completely biased view as an Independent Councillor with 18 years experience of Borough and County Councils operation;

Support grass roots Parish and Community Councils to be the focus of representation for the local people on the NAC's. Elected Parish and Community Councillors must have meaningful voting rights on the NAC's. Candidate Councillors to have mandatory training and must live in that specific community for at least 2 years to understand the culture and needs of that location.

No political party affiliation, so the true and only accountability is to the local people at Parish and Community Council level.