In Summary
First a disclaimer – this is an attempt to cut through the politics and jargon to find a simple explanation about what is being planned to change our local government structure. The information has been drawn from several sources, and we have tried to ensure that it is accurate at the current time. But the picture is far from clear, and changes are likely as plans progress.
The plan is to merge Borough and County Council functions for Surrey into two or three Unitary Authorities, (although there is an unlikely option of just one consolidated council). This will mean replacing Borough and County Councillors with Unitary Authority Councillors.
There is an expectation, that in a second phase, some central Government functions, such as economic growth / infrastructure strategy will be delegated to an elected Mayor.
It is a central Government initiative, and residents have not been given an option to vote for or against the initiative.
Other nearby counties such as Sussex, Hampshire and Kent will be following, but Surrey is being fast-tracked on the request of the leader of Surrey County Council. This request was approved by the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, who also agreed to suspend the council elections due to have been held this May.
The Objectives of Devolution
In the view of Ministers and in an ideal world the objectives of devolution include improving governance and efficiency by putting borough and council functions in a single authority, avoiding buck-passing, and giving residents a single authority and contact point to deal with local services. The Government also believes larger authorities with a minimum of 500,000 residents are more efficient and cost effective.
It is a process which has been going on for some time, but chiefly in large conurbations. It has only moved into the shire counties with two-tiers of both county and borough councils, when local politicians have requested or financial problems have emerged.
The Labour Government has made the move to unitary councils a national policy, and once they are in place, adding a strategic authority or elected Mayor. This will help them achieve the economic and growth agenda on which it fought the general election, believing that an elected Mayor will be more effective in delivering that growth mission than operating through central government departments.
Concerns that have been raised include:
Loss of democratic accountability
- The new Unitary Authorities will encompass large areas and populations, and will be more remote from electors
- There will be less local representation with fewer councillors for each area.
Reduced governance and efficiency
- Splitting some county-wide services such as education, social services and highways into smaller groupings may increase costs and reduce efficiency
- Combining functions, such as refuse collection and planning into larger groups may even lose rather than gain efficiencies.
- Combining staff from 12 councils into two or three unitary authorities will take time – incorporating different working practices and IT systems, dealing with redundancies
- There will likely be issues with centralised services being devolved to unitary authorities – lack of existing skills, transfer of staff, etc.
- The experience of previous local government reorganisations shows that achieving savings can be elusive and marginal at best.
Who currently does what?
To help residents understand what is involved, here is a list of the responsibilities carried out by our County and Borough Councils and what functions might be transferred from central Government:
Surrey County Council is responsible for:
- Arts and museums
- Adult social care
- Birth, marriage and death registration
- Children’s social care
- Education
- Fire & rescue
- Highways, traffic management, and street lighting
- On street car parking
- Libraries
- Public transport
- Public health
- Trading Standards
- Waste disposal
Reigate & Banstead Borough Council and other local councils in Surrey are responsible for:
- Car parks
- Collection of council tax and non-domestic rates
- Council tax support and housing benefits
- Elections
- Environmental health
- Housing
- Leisure centres, arts and museums
- Licensing
- Local plans and planning applications
- Managing anti-social behaviour
- Parks, allotments and cemeteries
- Planning and building control
- Public conveniences
- Refuse collection, recycling and fly tipping
- Social housing (although in some areas including Reigate & Banstead social housing is provided by housing associations such as Raven)
- Waste collection
The new Unitary Authorities will merge the functions of County and Borough Councils.
The central government services that may be devolved to a Mayor are likely to include:
- Adult education, employment and skills
- Strategic transport responsibilities
- Economic development and strategic housing approach
- Infrastructure projects
It is also likely that a Mayor would be responsible for Fire & Rescue, and for Police, abolishing the separate Police & Crime Commissioner.
What has happened so far?
There has already been major devolution at a country level within the UK with separate governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which have powers over a range of policy areas which had previously been the preserve of the UK Government. There are also a number of Elected Mayors and Mayoral Authorities already in place such as London, West Midlands and Manchester.
A government white paper was published on the 16th December last year entitled “English Devolution White Paper” and presented to Parliament by Angela Rayner, who apart from being Deputy Prime Minister is also the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.
It sums up the objectives as “Redistributing political, social and economic power that will rewire England and allow everyone everywhere to realise their full potential.”
But the “nuts and bolts” of the proposition are being managed by Jim McMahon, who is Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution.
The timetable so far has been:
16th December 2024: English Devolution White Paper published
16th December 2024: Jim McMahon wrote to the 21 current County Councils asking for proposals
10th January 2025: The leader of Surrey County Council submitted initial proposals and asked for fast-track status and postponement of council elections
5th February 2025: Government confirmed that Surrey would be on the accelerated programme for LGR (Local Government Reorganisation) and postponed Surrey Council elections. Requested Boroughs and the County to submit outline proposals by 21st March.
21st March 2025: Outline proposals submitted by the County Council and 11 Borough Councils
9th May 2025: Formal detailed proposals submitted by County and Borough Councils to the Minister of State
What happens next?
In the next few months, The Minister will review the submissions made and either ask for more information / discussion and is likely in late September or early October to announce his decisions concerning the future of Surrey.
If all goes to plan, elections for shadow Unitary Authority Councillors will take place in May 2026. These will eventually replace County and Borough Councillors. We are not sure how many, but fewer than existing councillors.
For the following year, as the new Unitary Authority is set up, they will shadow existing councils and, if all goes to plan, take over in May 2027. At that time, the County and Borough Councils will cease to exist.
Also, in May 2027, elections may be held for a Mayor. We will have the opportunity to elect this individual in the same way as London elected Sir Sadiq Khan.
From May 2027 our County and Borough Councils will be replaced by Unitary Authorities.
Current Proposals and Concerns
There are currently three proposals for Surrey that have been submitted to the Minister.
Surrey County Council has proposed two Unitary Proposals splitting the county into East and West.
Their case is that larger authorities will be economically more viable than three. This is challenged by the opposition parties – including Residents Association councillors – because West Surrey is felt to be unviable financially.
Most of the Borough Councils, including Reigate & Banstead support a three-way split. This proposal was agreed unanimously by all councillors and parties at the extraordinary council meeting in May at Reigate Town Hall.
This is felt to fit in with Surrey’s existing functional and locally recognised areas and maintain closer contact with the community whilst also meeting the key requirements of Unitary Authorities in terms of population and economic benefits.
Confusingly, a third option, submitted in outline by Reigate & Banstead and Crawley Borough Councils, is to merge the two councils into one Unitary Authority, perhaps linked with other councils in Surrey or Sussex. This option was supported only by the Conservative Group at Reigate & Banstead and opposed by the other groups including the Residents Association councillors. The intention is to benefit and incorporate the economic benefits of the “Gatwick Diamond.” The population of this area would be less than the ideal minimum of 500,000 (approx. 267,000) but the economic benefits, it was argued, outweigh the population criteria.
You can read the detailed submissions of all three options here:
2 Unitary Authority Option
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/lgr/plans/final
3 Unitary Authority Option
https://tattenhamprestonresidents.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Surreys-3-UA-option.pdf
Reigate & Banstead and Crawley Option
Consultation
In the rush to get the input to Ministers in May, there was little time for an organised consultation with the public following recognised protocols. However However, both the County and Borough councils did conduct their own surveys. The Borough Councils’ survey showed support for the 3 versus 2 unitary council option by between three to four to one. Revealingly, the County Council has not published the results of its own survey.
In the next stage, from mid-June to August there will be a statutory consultation. This will include government agencies, adjoining authorities and other public sector organisations. However, the Government has said “We welcome the views of any interested persons, including local residents and businesses.” Reigate and Banstead will make sure the consultation is available to the widest audience and a communications plan is in preparation.
Some Conclusions
The Labour Government wants locally elected Mayors in place to accelerate its growth agenda and reorganise local government as soon as possible and definitely before the end of the current parliamentary term.
The Leader of Surrey County Council put the Council and Boroughs in Surrey forward for fast tracking. Some cynics might see this was a neat way of avoiding Council elections in May and why Conservative councillors supported his submission. You may recall that the Conservative Party lost 52 seats at the Kent County Council election last month giving the majority to Reform. This very possibly could have happened in Surrey if there had been an election.
A major concern expressed by all parties is the amount of debt held by some boroughs which the Government want to be absorbed by the new Unitary Authorities. The biggest concern is Woking which has debts of £2.3 billion accrued from bad investment decisions and growing monthly with interest charges. By comparison, Reigate & Banstead is the only borough in Surrey with no debt.
All the Council submissions demand that this debt be taken over by Central Government but is this a decision the Labour Government will want to take at the present time? The Treasury has so far commented to only hint at some “help” for a limited time.
There is one way you may be able to influence this decision. A petition has been started by Catherine Powell, who is the Residents’ Association and Independent Group Leader on Surrey County Council.
Her petition asks that “Local Councils’ unserviceable debts run up over decades simply must be written off and the full costs of Local Government Reorganisation must be covered by Government if they want reorganisation as per their white paper of the 16th of December 2024”
You can reach it here:
Of the three options the 3 Unitary Authority option will allow us to partner with neighbouring boroughs, – Epsom & Ewell, Tandridge (to our east including Oxted, Caterham and Godstone) and Mole Valley (to our west including Ashtead, Leatherhead and Dorking), with similar geography, communications and economies. This option will retain local identities and allow closer contact between elected representatives and residents. It includes sound economic reasons but does not meet the 500,000 “ideal” population levels (the four boroughs current population is around 410,000). Proponents of the 3 Unitary Authority option offer “high-quality service, reduce costs, support growth, and give locally focused democratic representation and governance”.
The 2 Unitary Authority option will include us with Elmbridge which will increase the population to 550,000. Elmbridge includes the towns of Esher, Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. This is probably the wealthiest borough in Surrey in terms of property values and residents’ income but could enlarge the Unitary Authority to a level that might impact service levels and local representation. Note that Elmbridge prefers to be linked to us in the east rather than in a northern grouping.
The third option linking Reigate & Banstead with Crawley which is in a different county, West Sussex, is an interesting “outsider” option. Crawley likes the idea because it has little in common with the rest of West Sussex and wants to capitalise on Gatwick Airport. This also has economic value to Reigate & Banstead with the airport located on the boundaries of both boroughs and counties. On the negative side, Crawley has a shortage of land left for housing development and future housing requirements might need to be met from our green belt. There is also a concern that we in the north of the borough would be neglected if this new conurbation came into effect.
A further option, not yet explored, would be to add Crawley to the 3 Unitary Authority option increasing the population to 528,000, but this is not supported by the other Surrey boroughs or the county.
We encourage you to give your views to the consultation. We will give further updates through our monthly e-NEWS and our printed newsletters.
(The position as at 1st June 2025)