Unitary Savings Not Deliverable

Savings proposed under plans for a single unitary authority for North Yorkshire are not deliverable according to council chiefs.

They dismiss suggestions that it will cost £13.5 million to set up and save council taxpayers £14 million a year. Instead members of the North Yorkshire District Councils Network estimate it will cost around £43.5 million to establish and say savings of at least £25.7 million a year for the first five years will be needed just to stand still.

They say that even before the new set up costs are paid for, there needs to be savings of around £17 million per year as there will be a loss of government funding, less council tax income and £10 million efficiency savings that will have to be found whatever the structure of local government.

The Network has written to Ruth Kelly MP, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, to stress its opposition to North Yorkshire County Council's bid to create one authority for the county.
Instead it wants to see effort put into the current two tier system to improve the partnership approach already working and endorsed by the all the councils only six months ago - and not put money into a costly structural change with no guaranteed benefit.

The government is looking to change the way in which local government is administered in all areas of two tier working across the country - it is asking for views on creating either single unitaries or improving existing arrangements. But it has said it expects to create only a small number - eight - of new 'super' councils and that for the majority, improvements in the existing arrangements will deliver reform.

"It is a myth that big is best - that creating one large authority will automatically reduce costs," said Councillor Arthur Barker, Leader of Hambleton District Council and spokesman for the Network which is made up of Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and Selby councils.

"The public have previously said they do not want a single council of this size in North Yorkshire.

"Independent research calculates that set up costs for a new unitary run at around £32 million. But we think that in North Yorkshire redundancy costs will be high as many employees may not want to move work location and these same numbers will have to be re-employed. Also there will need to be massive investment in IT systems that together could total at least £43.5million.

"That means that the county's estimate of £13.5 million is way off course. Add to that our figure of £25.7 million a year needed just to balance the books compared to the county council's suggestion that one unitary would save £14 million a year and again we are poles apart.

"We only hope the government independently validates these figures before a decision that impacts on 580,000 people is made."
And he said the county council proposal would see a reduction in government funding as grants currently given to each district would be lost.

"This equates to £36.5 million over ten years. Our current support per head is lower than major populations and these proposals would see it drop still further," added Councillor Barker.
"This will mean either higher taxes or reduced services. And as the proposal suggests equalising services in some areas there will be increases in council taxes but cuts in services - in Hambleton it is estimated that the district element of council tax will rise by 80%.

"Spend varies from council to council and from area to area so it is not right to make spending equal - districts mostly provide discretionary services like leisure and tourism and people have come to expect a high level of provision. This would not be possible under a unitary authority."

The government will consider the unitary bid over the next month and if deemed worthy of further investigation it will go out for consultation in March.

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