Local government organisation in England is complicated, always has been, which is why the government are keen to reorganise it.
There are 317 councils in England:
» 21 County Councils (upper-tier)
» 164 District Councils (lower-tier)
» 32 London Boroughs (unitary)
» 36 Metropolitan Boroughs (unitary)
» 62 Unitary authorities (unitary)
» 2 Sui Generis authorities – City of London and Isles of Scilly (unitary)
Logically it makes no sense that some shire counties have two tiers of government and others have one, but practically it's where we've ended up following the sporadic and inconsistent introduction of unitary authorities over the last few decades. Surrey retains a county council and 11 district councils, for example, whereas neighbouring Berkshire has comprised six unitary councils since 1998 and Buckinghamshire became a single unitary authority (plus Milton Keynes) in 2020. If you want to see how complicated it all is, the following map is clickable.
In a White Paper yesterday the government signalled that it intends to replace all two-tier systems with unitary authorities, mainly for reasons of efficiency. This could be the most dramatic change to local government since 1974 (or it could be yet another well-meaning attempt that ends up as a piecemeal buffet of inconsistencies).
Rather than impose top-down reorganisation the government is inviting proposals from affected areas, which may calm provincial councillors somewhat. They've also suggested an optimum size for the new unitary authorities - a population of at least half a million. Further clarification will follow.
In some counties it's easy to see how things might end up. Worcestershire has a two tier system and a population of 590,000, so its six districts will likely be merged to create one county-wide authority. Cambridgeshire currently consists of unitary Peterborough plus five districts with a total population of 628,000, so will likely end up as Peterborough and Not-Peterborough. Meanwhile Hertfordshire has a two tier system and a population of 1,174,000, which sounds like two unitaries of half a million plus would be the best solution. If you write some population figures on a map you can even play Armchair Council Reorganisation and try to draw your own boundary.
This is such a screamingly obvious solution - Hertfordshire West and Hertfordshire East, each with a population of 600,000 - that I'd be amazed if nobody proposed it. It might feel odd having the same council organising bin collections in Berkhamsted and Borehamwood, or deciding pool opening times in Hitchin and Hoddesdon, but the burghers of Buckinghamshire cope with similar. Imagine the savings that could be made by extinguishing piddly districts like Three Rivers and Stevenage, but also the local accountability that might be lost.
The county, excluding the unitary authorities of Thurrock and Southend, has a population of 1,468,000. This sounds like it'd be perfect for three unitary authorities but if you try to divide up the existing 12 districts it doesn't quite work, at least in any practical sense. Trust me on this, I've spent over an hour playing Armchair Council Reorganisation and every time either the numbers don't add up or the geography gets in the way. My best attempt comes if you merge Thurrock into the mix, which is fine because the rules say we can include "unitary councils where there is evidence of failure" and Thurrock is the posterchild for that.
This gives us a Chelmsford/Harlow-based authority, a Colchester-based authority and an estuary-hugging authority, leaving Southend as a unitary city all on its own. These three new authorities all have populations just over 500,000, so that's perfect, but there are so many irregularities underneath that this would never be the preferred final solution. I show this merely to demonstrate what an absolute can of worms Angela Rayner is opening here.
Whatever, if you're a council leader facing big choices as to who to propose merging with, here's my county-by-county guide to the underlying demographic issues (including the total population in each case).
dg's guide to Armchair Council Reorganisation
Two-tier counties Hertfordshire (1,174,000): Likely two authorities, west and east Surrey (1,195,000): Likely two authorities Norfolk (894,000): One big council, as previously proposed West Sussex (863,000): One big council, probably Oxfordshire (695,000), Suffolk (767,000), Warwickshire (581,000), Worcestershire (590,000): One county-sized council, almost certainly
Partly-unitary counties - more complicated* Kent (Medway plus 1,562,000): would make two or three new authorities Essex (Thurrock/Southend plus 1,468,000): would make two or three new authorities Hampshire (Southampton/Portsmouth plus 1,391,000): would make two or three new authorities Lancashire (Blackburn/Blackpool plus 1,208,000): would make two new authorities
* or you could merge the existing unitary authorities with surrounding districts, somehow
Fully unitary already Already quite large: Bristol, Cornwall, Dorset, County Durham, Northumberland, Wiltshire Undersized, could potentially merge: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Cheshire, East Yorkshire, Shropshire, Somerset Only recently reorganised: Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire Intrinsically small: Isle of Wight, Herefordshire, Rutland
Not affected Metropolitan boroughs: West Midlands, Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Merseyside, South Yorkshire, Tyne & Wear London boroughs: Greater London† Sui Generis: City of London, Isles of Scilly
† although who's to say London won't be affected. Perhaps now is the time to merge Kensington & Chelsea (146,000) and Hammersmith & Fulham (185,000), two of the capital's smallest boroughs, to create Kensington & Fulham (331,000). Kingston would then be the smallest borough and perhaps we could merge that with Epsom & Ewell, enlarging Greater London at the same time, to create the Royal Borough of Hogsmill (250,000). Or perhaps we should just put down our crayons and spreadsheets and wait for further details because it's all too easy to jump to ridiculous conclusions and administrative geography never works out how you expect anyway, but this really could be the biggest administrative change since 1974 so watch this space.
