Leaders speak out against any move to abolish district and borough councils in favour of unitary authority for Hertfordshire

District council leaders across the county have spoken out against apparent plans to abolish the upper two-tier system of local government in Hertfordshire.

According to a report in The Times, the Government is planning to replace the county council and the 10 district or borough councils – including East Herts – with a unitary system, where a single authority covers all council responsibilities.

In September, Hertfordshire County Council submitted to the Government an expression of interest in a devolution deal for the county.

A spokesperson said they were “open to exploring options for a devolution deal” and “expect discussions to take place over the forthcoming months”.

A Government White Paper on devolution, including further details of proposals for local government reform, is expected to be published in December.

It is understood that council leaders across Hertfordshire will discuss the issue at a meeting in two weeks’ time – but leaders of the district and borough councils have warned against the idea of a single authority covering the entire county.

In East Herts, Cllr Ben Crystall, Green Party leader of a joint administration with the Lib Dems, said: “Moving key decisions away from smaller district councils and the communities they serve to a huge, distant unitary authority may not deliver the change we need.”

He suggested the Government was looking for a “quick fix”, but questioned a claim from the County Councils Network that replacing the two-tier system with unitary authorities nationwide would lead to a saving of £3 billion over five years.

“Moving services like planning to a unitary, for example, takes them even further from where the impact is felt and could end up being more expensive,” he said.

“Ensuring better-shared services between districts would be a far more effective way to reduce costs.”

Several leaders, including Cllr Crystall, suggested they would want more powers to be granted to town and parish councils – the lower rung of local government – if plans for a unitary authority went ahead.

Cllr Paul de Kort, leader of Liberal Democrat-run St Albans City & District Council, said that including urban, suburban and rural areas in the same authority would “not end well” and would lead to “big issues about local representation”. He raised concerns about imposing a “top-down” approach in a “one size fits all” manner.

Although the details of the proposed reorganisation are yet to be ironed out, Cllr de Kort is expecting an elected mayor to be introduced, covering an area that is wider than St Albans alone.

Cllr Stephen Giles-Medhurst, Lib Dem leader of Three Rivers District Council, is expecting the same.

But, he said, “there has been no discussion from the Government” about proposals to end the two-tier system, despite Government sources telling The Times they had consulted “extensively” with councils and were “only working with areas that proactively supported the reforms”.

Three Rivers was one of the Hertfordshire councils that opposed the idea of a unitary authority when it was proposed by the county council in 2020.

Cllr Giles-Medhurst said: “We would look at whatever is being suggested, but it should be driven from the bottom up rather than the top down.”

He said that two unitary authorities covering Hertfordshire would be “much more feasible” than a single one covering 1.2 million people and expects that any changes would be “several years down the line”.

Other district and borough council leaders also said there had been little discussion with the Government about the possibility of introducing a unitary system.

Last week, St Albans MP Daisy Cooper asked the Government whether it had had any recent discussions with Hertfordshire County Council about the two-tier system of government. Responding, local government minister Jim McMahon said they have “not specifically discussed this topic”.

Cllr Max Holloway, Labour leader of a joint administration with the Lib Dems in Welwyn Hatfield, said his council was working with others in the county “to get the best deal for Hertfordshire”, but added: “Those discussions have not included any talk of a unitary authority.” He said he was “unconvinced” that a unitary system was the “best way” to “put residents first”.

And Cllr Adrian England, leader of a minority Lib Dem administration in Dacorum, said any reorganisation of local government should ensure the council is “a size where it is still ‘the local council’”.

In Watford, mayor Peter Taylor said: “There needs to be lots of discussion with not just councils, but with residents and businesses to work out what is best for everybody.

“I’m not convinced that having huge councils that cover half a million or more people is the best thing for our residents.

“People want local councils to be local, to know their area, to be able to improve things for local residents, to make sure we’ve got the best possible services. Creating huge councils doesn’t always lead to that.”

He said that even if Hertfordshire had two unitary authorities, they would “still have populations of about 600,000 people and still cover really large areas – I would take a lot of convincing that that’s in the best interests of residents”.

Cllr Jeremy Newmark, Labour leader of Hertsmere Borough Council in a joint administration with the Lib Dem, wrote for LabourList that “any reorganisation will not be easy and will be stacked with new risks”.

He said the size of Hertsmere’s council “creates benefits not just for our local communities [but] for Great Britain PLC”, with its ownership of Elstree Film Studios, Sky Studio Elstree and BBC Elstree Centre.

“Local government needs to remain genuinely local… if we want engaged councillors to be equipped to respond to local needs, it’s vital that they cover localised wards and are familiar with all areas in their council’s boundaries,” Cllr Newmark wrote.

The leaders of Broxbourne and North Herts councila were also contacted for this story.

HOW LOCAL GOVERNMENT OPERATES AT THE MOMENT

Under the current system, the county council handles education, roads and pavements, adult social services, children’s social care, recycling and waste planning, libraries, trading standards and the fire and rescue service.

Below Hertfordshire County Council are the three district councils of East Herts, North Herts and Three Rivers, the six borough councils of Broxbourne, Dacorum, Hertsmere, Stevenage, Watford and Welwyn Hatfield, and St Albans City and District Council.

These 10 councils are the local planning, housing and waste collection authorities whose services also include car parks (including fines and permits), licensing, pest control, environmental health, leisure services and administering council tax.

There is a bottom tier of town or parish councils. In Bishop’s Stortford, the town council manages the cemetery, allotments, St Michael’s churchyard, open spaces and parks, the splash pool and Tourist Information Centre. It also administers community centres, minibuses and several charitable trusts. Furthermore, it organises events including the carnival and Remembrance services.

Councils have three main sources of revenue: council tax, central government grants and business rates. In 2019-20 (the last year before emergency Covid funding), local authorities in England received 52% of their funding from council tax, 27% from retained business rates and 22% from government grants.

Households in Hertfordshire pay varying amounts of council tax for services depending on which one of eight property tax bands – A to H – they are in and which district or borough and town or parish they live in.

In Bishop’s Stortford in the current 2024-25 financial year, which ends March 31, the typical band D household pays £2,200.66. More than three-quarters (76.6%) of this sum goes to Herts County Council (£1,685.75), 11.4% to the Herts Police and Crime Commissioner for policing (£251.00), 8.9% to East Herts Council (£195.22) and the remaining 3.1% to the town council (£68.69).