Peter Harris said the Reform UK Suffolk County Council debate now reaches beyond party politics, after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government revealed that senior officials had backed Essex County Council’s three unitary proposal over the Government’s five-council option. The disclosure came in a pre-action response tied to a proposed judicial review and puts the reorganisation plan back under legal scrutiny.
Harris said the decision affects 1.7 million Essex residents and asked whether the reorganisation process should continue. He said Ministers had chosen the five-council plan despite advice from experienced officials across government.
MHCLG pre-action response
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said officials assessed four competing proposals for new unitary councils in Essex before recommending the three unitary proposal. In the response, officials said it was the only proposal they assessed as financially viable within five years, and they said the Government’s preferred five-council option risked leaving councils at a significant disadvantage.
The same response said the three unitary proposal presented the strongest case on the data submitted in the first part of the financial efficiency assessment. It also said the payback period for the 5UA proposal was unclear, with figures disputed locally and officials unable to verify the position. Officials said their confidence in the 5UA estimates was low.
Peter Harris on Essex
Harris said the Secretary of State ignored advice from highly paid, experienced officials from his own department and across Whitehall. He called the decision a major embarrassment and said Ministers had chosen to ignore their officials in pursuit of political goals.
He also said the same small-council option was chosen in Essex, Norfolk and Hampshire. In his view, that left the five-council route exposed on cost and on service delivery, especially where unsupported debt in Thurrock shaped the assessment.
Three unitary proposal
The response said officials judged the three unitary proposal strongest on the delivery of high quality and sustainable public services. It also recorded support from officials in the Department for Education and concerns from officials in the Department of Health about the five unitary authority proposal.
Harris said the Government’s choice risked millions of pounds in extra costs for taxpayers and could jeopardise services for vulnerable adults and children. Essex County Council has now put the Government’s decision at the centre of its legal challenge, and the next step is whether the Government stands by the five-council plan or pulls it back under pressure from the case.
