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Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation in Norfolk
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Background
The English Devolution White Paper (opens new window), published on 16 December 2024, outlines the UK Government's plans to extend devolution across England. Their goal is to empower local leaders and communities to drive growth and improve living standards. This includes reorganising local government across England.
To achieve this, the government established the Devolution Priority Programme to quickly create Mayoral Combined Authorities or Mayoral Combined County Authorities for areas ready to come together over sensible geographies that met the criteria set out in the White Paper.
While the Mayor of London was established in 2000, this new process of English devolution that the government is furthering began in 2014 and include Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands. However, the Devolution White Paper is the first time the Government has said that they expect every area in England to have a mayor and a new Strategic Authority.
The Government launched a public consultation on devolution across these new areas, including Norfolk and Suffolk, in February 2025. This is open for comments until 13 April 2025 and we would encourage all residents and business to take part (opens new window).
The Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution then wrote on 5 February issuing a statutory invitation to all councils in two-tier areas like Norfolk (opens new window) to develop unitary proposals. These proposals were to be designed to bring together lower and upper-tier local government services in new unitary councils' structures and submitted to government by the deadline set of 21 March.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council officers, along with officers from all Norfolk borough, city and district, councils worked together to develop Norfolk's proposals. The councils undertook a combined procurement exercise to contract Deloitte LLP to produce an independent, objective and evidence-based options analysis in line with the Government's requirements. This finished report, produced by Deloitte, identified the likely options for local government reorganisation that will deliver high-quality and sustainable public services and scored them against the guidance. Their report was then published and debated at each of the Norfolk councils.
Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation explained
Devolution is about shifting power to local areas. The government would transfer powers and funding to local governments. This shift is meant to allow local authorities to make decisions closer to the communities they serve, leading to more effective and better-targeted public services. For Norfolk, this will lead to a mayor for both Norfolk and Suffolk combined. That Mayor's powers would include responsibility for a range of areas, including economic growth, housing delivery, strategic planning, transport, skills and the ability to set a council tax precept.
Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), on the other hand, is about optimising the structure of local authorities to improve efficiency and achieve better service delivery. The Government's vision is for simpler council structures, which make it clear who is responsible for services. These unitary authorities will operate over a larger area than existing districts and will take on the functions of both districts/boroughs/cities and county councils, thereby changing them from 'two-tier' local government systems to 'single tier' systems. For Norfolk, this means fewer and larger unitary councils compared to the current two-tier model, which has a total of eight local councils covering the county. The exact number, shape and size of any new unitary councils for Norfolk are to be determined following the submissions to the government on 21 March.
What has Great Yarmouth Borough Council decided?
At our full council meeting on Thursday 20 March, councillors voted unanimously to support a three-unitary proposal for Norfolk.
The Deloitte report was presented by the leader of the council at our full council meeting on Thursday 20 March. Councillors had a lengthy debate and discussed the merit of each option presented and in the end the councillors voted unanimously to:
agree the Deloitte report as an Interim Plan for Local Government Reorganisation in Norfolk and for the Leader to submit this to the Government by the 21 March 2025 deadline
agree the Interim Plan to confirm support for the three unitary model as the preferred model for Norfolk
endorse further collaborative development of the preferred option, including public and stakeholder consultation, and the preparation of a full business case for submission to the Government by 26 September 2025
High-level timeline
Friday 21 March 2025 - submission of LGR interim plan to Government
September 2025 - submission of LGR full business case to Government
new unitary councils up and running in Norfolk by 2028
I support the move to devolution with a mayor for Norfolk and Suffolk and I believe the three-unitary option can work alongside that, providing the best model of governance to deliver local services for local people in the borough.
I believe our council supported this approach because it allows for an understanding and a sense of local place for Great Yarmouth to remain.
We believe that if change is coming, this model allows local government to continue to deliver for the people of our borough in a way that meets both the Government's criteria, but that also follows an evolution that builds on existing relationships, partnerships, experience and history that GYBC has provided for nearly 50 years.
