Essex County Council has confirmed plans to launch a judicial review against the government’s Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) decision to split the county into five unitary authorities.
It comes after the council, yesterday, published a letter it received from government lawyers, which it claims to show that the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government disregarded the advice of senior civil servants in pursuit of “political goals.”
On Friday the council issued a statement asserting that it “has today taken the decision to proceed with a judicial review of the proposals.”
Legal challenges are also looming in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hampshire due to differences of opinion over the reshaping of local authorities in these areas, while the body representing county councils has accused the government of “short term political expediency”.
The pre-action letter from the government legal department reveals that although Whitehall officials formally recommended a three-unitary model for Essex as the financially strongest and most viable option, Steve Reed chose to push ahead with the five-council structure.
In the same letter, government lawyers dismissed the council’s legal grounds as “unarguable” and urged them not to proceed with the lawsuit.
Councillor Peter Harris, leader of Essex County Council said: “The fact that a Secretary of State was prepared to ignore the advice of highly paid, experienced officials not just from his own department but across Whitehall on a decision affecting 1.7 million Essex residents is beyond staggering and a major embarrassment.
“It is as clear as day that ministers chose to ignore their officials in pursuit of what were clearly political goals, heaping millions of pounds in costs on to taxpayers in the process.”
A similar situation has unfolded in Norfolk, where sources reveal that Whitehall officials advised a single unitary solution but the local government secretary favoured a three-unitary split.
Driven by concerns over the lawfulness of these proposals, Norfolk County Council is now likely to pursue legal action against the government, alongside Suffolk and Hampshire, which are also seeking their own legal challenges.
The County Councils Network has written to the Prime Minister and the local government secretary expressing concern over the growing perception that decisions were “being driven by short-term political expediency.”
The CCN argues that recent restructuring decisions fail to meet the government’s own criteria regarding scale, sustainability and service resilience, describing them instead as politically motivated.
Cllr Sean Matthews, chair-elect of the CCN said: “While we await the disclosure of further information regarding the decisions in Norfolk, Suffolk and Hampshire, the information provided to Essex alone raises profound questions about how these decisions are being made. When officials are warning of serious financial and operational risks, ministers cannot simply ignore the evidence and hope for the best. Getting local government structures wrong can have consequences that last for decades.”
“These revelations now demand an urgent reassessment of the decisions already taken and the government must now fully disclosure all the underpinning evidence and ministerial advice. At a time when government is planning to make further announcements on the remaining areas in the coming weeks, today’s information will further erode trust in the process, and it is inconceivable that the government should make further decisions at pace when the integrity of the process is in serious doubt.”
In March, Steve Reed explained his reasons for backing the given unitary model, writing: “In my judgement, although all the other proposals met the criteria for unitary local government, the five unitary proposal best met the criteria overall. It performed particularly well due to the fact that it is clearly shaped by the communities across the area and reflects local identities.
He added: “I considered the expected costs and benefits, including transition costs, and the ability of each new council to be financially resilient. On the evidence, I am satisfied that the five unitary proposal can be delivered on a sustainable financial basis.”
