Local Government Reorganisation

Lord Shipley Excerpts

Tuesday 21st July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord in Waiting/Government Whip (Lord Wilson of Sedgefield) (Lab)]

My Lords, we will now have 20 minutes for the Back Benches. This time is just for Back-Benchers, and we want to hear questions, not statements. We will start with the Conservatives.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords—

[Noble Lords]

Oh!

--- Later in debate ---

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The estimate of the savings came from the work that the local authorities did themselves. I accept that there will be a great deal of work to be done through the process as we transition to these unitary authorities. But, quite frankly, I have worked in a two-tier authority in all my time in local government, and I think that the effort of going through the transition phase is well worth the endgame here: making sure that we have a system of unitary authorities right across the country; I know that the noble Baroness, Lady Scott, has done this exercise herself in her own council. They will be the building blocks for the devolution programme, as we continue to roll out devolution across the country.

The figures being provided for support for this process are: £1 million in funding for every new unitary council, £900,000 in capacity funding, and up to £150,000 of additional funding to support children’s services, adult social care and public health leadership. This is an investment to make sure that we have a consistent system of local government across the country and that those savings that councils have told us they can generate will occur.

[Lord Shipley (LD)]

My Lords, the Prime Minister said yesterday:

“We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land so that they can do more”.


Indeed, the Minister said the very same thing a moment ago. Yet this Statement centralises power into unitary councils; it does not devolve power to town and parish councils. Why have they been missed out of this Statement? They clearly should be a key part of the Government’s planned devolution to postcodes. I hope the Minister will be able to reassure us.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Lord was part of the discussions on the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill, which set out clearly the role of town and parish councils as we develop neighbourhood governance processes. I went to the National Association of Local Councils—NALC—conference recently and spoke to them, and they will be fundamentally involved and engaged in that neighbourhood governance process. The noble Lord is quite right that we need to make sure that, where funding is devolved, it does not stop in the mayoral authority but is devolved to our communities. We are keen to see that happen. The dialogue with town and parish councils is ongoing, and I look forward to those discussions with them as we take this process forward.