Government 'rejected advice on council restructure'

A letter shows that the government ignored advice to make Suffolk a single council and instead chose to split the county into three, it has been claimed.

Suffolk's Reform-led county council released a letter which it says shows that Local Government Secretary Steve Reed favoured proposals for three single-tier authorities for Suffolk as part of local government reorganisation (LGR), against the advice of civil servants.

Suffolk County Council leader Michael Hadwen said he would "fight tooth and nail" to stop local government reorganisation in Suffolk.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said decisions were "taken transparently and in line with the published criteria".

Councillors are set to decide whether to progress with a legal challenge against the government at an extraordinary cabinet meeting on 29 June.

The letter, which came from government lawyers, encouraged the council not to continue proceedings for a judicial review and said that ultimately it was down to the Local Government Secretary to decide which proposal "best met the criteria".

However, it said: "We consider the one unitary to be the strongest proposal for Suffolk against the criteria. The single unitary proposal meets all the criteria, and does so more strongly than the three unitary proposal in relation to its geography, financial resilience, and service delivery."

The letter quoted Reed saying he had looked at "all consultation responses and I noted the strong, consistent local support from residents, named consultees and organisations for the three unitary proposals, in particular in relation to local democratic representation in new authorities."

He said the three council proposal better reflected "the regional, cultural, social, and economic pattern across Suffolk, provides new councils that would reflect the different local identities and communities across Suffolk, and would more effectively support Ipswich's role as the key urban area across Suffolk".

Hadwen has previously branded the planned changes to the councils as "madness".

He said: "I have been clear from day one that I have no wish to see my county divided, and I will fight tooth and nail to avoid this from happening.

"Not only is the secretary of state trying to force Suffolk into a chaotic reorganisation – he is doing so with a blatant disregard for the advice of his civil servants."

The council said its legal challenge was "not about seeking to change the LGR outcome and deliver one unitary council. It is about calling a halt to the process entirely."

The claim for a judicial review was made on Wednesday by the council, under instruction from its leader. It can still pull out of the legal action.

Papers need to be lodged within seven days of the claim for a review being made and the council has decided to classify this decision as an "urgent" one, meaning it cannot be called-in by councillors to challenge it.

Papers published ahead of the meeting said if the legal challenge was progressed and was ultimately unsuccessful, the council could be liable for legal costs for the secretary of state as well as its own. It said it was "relatively unlikely" these total costs would exceed £500,000.

If the High Court granted a judicial review, a senior judge would assess whether the government had acted within the law and followed proper procedures.

The council said that it had sought advice from a "leading counsel" over whether a legal challenge had merit but that advice has not been published, with the council saying it was "privileged and confidential".

Essex County Council has already announced its intention to take the government to court over similar reorganisation.

Opposition councillors have criticised the council's potential legal challenge.

The leader of the Green group, Andrew Stringer, said: "Reform propose to use £500,000 of taxpayer money to challenge the government decision on LGR. Is this the promised good value for the Suffolk taxpayer?

"It appears with Reform, we'll be getting less democracy, less scrutiny, and a lot more public money spent on legal fights with the government."

The Conservative group said the Reform administration had not carried out the process in an "open" way with "proper scrutiny".

Matthew Hicks, the Tories' spokesperson for LGR, said: "By the administration's own admission, if this challenge fails the council will have to pay not only its own legal costs but most of the government's too - and it is being funded by raiding the council's reserves.

"This is being done completely the wrong way around - you make your case to councillors and the public first, then take a decision on whether to write a huge cheque."

The leader of the Labour group, Martin Cook, said: "How can a legal challenge that a cash-strapped council admits could cost more than £500,000 possibly be a priority for Suffolk?

"The more you look at it, the less it resembles a council acting in our best interests, and the more it looks like Reform fighting Nigel Farage's battles with Suffolk taxpayers' money."

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "Local government reorganisation will put one council in charge of decisions in their area, speed up the construction of new homes and infrastructure, improve public services and boost growth to put more money in people's pockets.

"Decisions on local government reorganisation are taken transparently and in line with the published criteria."

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