Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will make an estimate of the potential effect on (a) staffing, (b) administrative and (c) other costs of replacing Shropshire Council and Telford and Wrekin Council with a single unitary authority.

It is for the Shropshire Council and Telford & Wrekin Council to decide whether they wish to merge into a single unitary council to improve the local governance of the area and make it more sustainable, and if so to make an assessment of the potential effects on services, staffing, and costs which they would need to include as part of any formal governance change to be submitted to the Secretary of State.