Christopher Chope – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Christopher Chope on 2016-09-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether statutory safeguards are in place to ensure that new unitary authorities created as a result of councils seeking to abolish themselves in favour of new unitary structures must set the same band D council tax for all households from their inception; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Marcus Jones

Where an area has plans for its governance arrangements to be changed and proposes this to the Secretary of State, it must provide evidence as to how its proposals are likely to result in the provision of better local public services, significant cost savings, greater value for money, stronger and more accountable local leadership, and sustainability in the medium to long term. It is of course open to any body or person to make representations to the Secretary of State either in support of or in opposition to such proposals.

As we have made clear during discussions with areas, whilst size is an important consideration for areas considering governance changes, there are no maximum or minimum permitted sizes.

The level of council tax of any new authority is a matter for the local councils concerned. The government will however maintain council tax referendum thresholds at a modest level in order to help keep bills down for hardworking people. This is always the case including in cases of governance change.