Local Government Reorganisation

Lord McLoughlin Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for his welcome of that decision. He is quite right, of course, that when these proposals were put forward there were areas on which there were different opinions within political parties about how things should be done, as well as differences between political parties. That is why it was very important that we judged absolutely against the criteria that we had set. In response to his question about the rationale for the decisions, all the areas that have had decisions will receive a decision letter from the Government setting out the rationale behind the decision, which I hope will help local areas understand how the process has worked. As I said, and as I will keep stressing, the proposals all came forward from local areas; we have not designed any of these proposals in Westminster.

[Lord McLoughlin (Con)]

My Lords, being a bit sceptical, like the noble Lord, Lord Grocott, as to the alleged savings that will be made as a result of this, can the Minister tell us what mechanisms are in operation to stop councils which will be altered in their status embarking on large contracts between now and the new authority dates?

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

That is a very important issue indeed, which we picked up on early in the process. The Secretary of State has written to all tiers of local government to ask them, if they are undertaking big contracts—which is sometimes necessary, because if your contract is running out, you cannot wait until the new authority is in place—to work in partnership across the local authorities involved to make sure that everybody understands what is being committed to. We have asked for the same with capital disposals, so that all local authorities make sure they are working in partnership and everybody understands what is happening, both with capital and with contracts.