Event title
- Policy Webinar: Hold the Line
Location
Date
Keynote speakers
- Graeme McDonald (Managing Director, Solace)
- Colin Copus (Emeritus Professor of Local Politics, Department of Politics and Public Policy, De Montfort University)
- Martin George (Acting Editor, Local Government Chronicle)
- Rachel McKoy (Executive Director, Association of Monitoring Officers (AMO))
Event details
Background and Context
The wave of local government reorganisation (LGR) heralded by the English Devolution Bill represents the most significant structural upheaval outside of central government since the 1970s. The creation of new unitary authorities is designed to increase productivity and streamline governance, to the desired end of providing residents with better quality public services.
The logistical challenge of merging multiple district authorities into these new authorities cannot, however, be overstated.
Government’s stated intent remains to end two-tier local government in England and replace it with new unitary arrangements. As such, programme updates and guidance continue through a central stream of announcements and documentation.
The outcome of LGR is already being rapidly shaped by the production of interim plans, consultations, and ‘shadow’ transition work (formal or informal) which are accelerating decision-making before all details are settled. Even where formal decisions are pending, sunk costs and path dependencies are already accumulating.
All of these questions are increasing the already significant pressure on senior local government leadership capacities and constantly changing central government decisions on election timings and governance continuity, makes early clarity unusually valuable.
The government’s own justification for election delays emphasised freeing capacity to deliver reorganisation. The subsequent U-turn means the same system is now expected to deliver both intensified transition work and elections at pace.
This webinar will be a chance to discuss all of the above and address whether LGR can be delivered successfully with an audience made up of local government officers, academics and central government officials.
Guiding Questions
- Is LGR itself now at risk of a U-turn? Is this simply turbulence on the way to implementation?
- Legitimacy vs. deliverability: Does the elections U-turn strengthen democratic legitimacy but weaken delivery capacity, and does that trade-off make further reversals more likely?
- Law as a policy constraint: Are we entering a phase where judicial review risk becomes a standing design parameter for LGR (not an edge case)? What does this mean for the ministerial ability to manoeuvre on reorganisation and devolution?
- The cost of reversal: Which transition costs are real but routinely underpriced, and which costs risk arising specifically from stop-start, U-turned policy?
To book to attend this event, participants can access Policy Webinar: Hold the Line.
Convened by Localis.