Almost all the costs of creating an elected mayor for Sussex and making big changes to councils will have to be paid for by local taxpayers, according to a new report.
The government pledged to provide “capacity funding” but a report to members of Brighton and Hove City Council gave an indication of how little help the council will receive.
A report to the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee said that the council was one of 21 local authorities that would receive £7.6 million between them.
The average – just over £360,000 for each local authority – is dwarfed by the costs estimated by the consultancy PwC in a 2020 report for the County Councils Network.
At that time, PwC said that the same sort of reforms would cost 25 counties about £400 million – or an average of £16 million each.
The same report forecast potential savings of £2.9 billion over five years – or just over £23 million a year in each county area. Much of the savings would come from job cuts, targeting duplication.
The report to the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee said: “There will be significant financial implications for Brighton and Hove City Council as a result of both local government reorganisation and devolution.”
The report also included the government’s response to a request for financial support: “We expect that areas will be able to meet transition costs over time from existing budgets.”
The government called for “the flexible use of capital receipts” – or the money made by selling assets – to support “transformation and invest-to-save projects”.
In the council report, devolution refers to the creation of an elected mayor for Sussex, supported by a “mayoral strategic authority”.
Local government reorganisation refers to the proposed scrapping of county council and district councils to be replaced by unitary councils like Brighton and Hove City Council.
The government wants the new unitary councils to serve a population of at least 500,000, sticking to existing district boundaries where possible. This would mean three new unitary councils to serve Sussex.
Brighton and Hove has a population of almost 280,000. West Sussex has a population of just over 880,000 and East Sussex about 555,000. Overall, Sussex has more than 1.7 million people.
East Sussex County Council and the five districts in East Sussex have proposed becoming one of the new unitaries and would match the size proposed by the government in its devolution “white paper”.
Brighton and Hove City Council proposed splitting Sussex into five unitary areas while remaining open to changes around its edges – such as absorbing the eastern half of Saltdean and possibly Peacehaven and even Newhaven.
A public consultation also gave some support to Southwick and even Shoreham coming into the Brighton and Hove council area. People in Worthing appeared less keen on the prospect of joining Brighton and Hove.
But Worthing has a population of about 113,000 and Adur, including Southwick and Shoreham, serves about 64,500 people.
To complicate matters, Crawley Borough Council recently proposed joining forces with a local authority in Surrey – Reigate and Banstead Borough Council – focused around Gatwick.
There is still a great deal to be decided in a short time and ministers want councils to work together to come up with proposals that they all support – a big ask!
The report to Brighton and Hove City Council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee reported feedback from the government and noted that population size is only one factor, with local identity also important.
But, according to the report, the government said: “Unitary local government must be the right size to achieve efficiencies.”
The government also said: “It would be helpful to see … which option best delivers value for money for council taxpayers … total borrowing and debt servicing costs and what options may be available for rationalisation of potentially saleable assets.”
The report to the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee also outlined the timescale for communications and consultations and legal changes, leading to a mayoral election next May.
Shadow unitary councils would be elected a year later, in May 2027, with the existing councils being scrapped and the new unitary councils taking over formally in 2028.
Much remains to be discussed and decided – most of it out of the public gaze despite the goal in the white paper last autumn of “improving accountability and scrutiny” – and ensuring “transparency of decision-making”.
But the council’s Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee will have the chance to air some of the issues. It is due to meet at 4pm on Thursday (5 June) at Hove Town Hall. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast.
