Local government reform is back on the agenda in Wales, with much talk of council mergers. But the focus, instead, should be on redesigning structures from scratch to best meet the needs of local people
The issue of reform of the local government system in Wales has been a hot topic for discussion for many years but the debate was fuelled some months ago by the publication of the Williams report. This suggested that services could be delivered more efficiently by fewer councils and suggested a new local authority map for Wales.
At its annual conference later this week, the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) is due to discuss (among other things) the issue of prospective local government reform. The latest contribution to the debate has come from Shadow Welsh Secretary Owen Smith who urged council leaders in Wales to ‘pick up the baton’ and take the lead in reforming local government.
He argues that councils should be trusted to drive any possible mergers on, presumably, a voluntary basis, rather than be forced to do so by diktats from the Welsh government.
Such a suggestion displays a certain degree of naivety and lack of understanding of the issues involved – a situation not uncommon in opposition politicians lacking the support of teams of experienced civil servants of researchers and forced to make up policy on the hoof.
Firstly, can we be sure that any voluntary mergers are undertaken on the basis of what is best for services users and the general public and not for political reasons? It is easy to see how possible mergers could be developed on the basis of which political party would exert control over the merged authority and rejected where a political party realised it was unlikely to gain political control.
Secondly, can we be sure that any mergers proposed by existing local authorities would constitute the ‘right’ merger? It is important that there is a clear strategic rationale for the merger and it must be seen that this is a means not an end. However, this is not always the case and quite often the merger undertaken is the ‘wrong’ merger and thus the benefits are just not realised.
I have been involved in the examination of many possible mergers of public authorities and although alternative merger options were sometimes available these were just not considered. This may be just a case of inadequate consideration and analysis of the options available, but sometimes it is a party political issue.
It may seem astounding, but I have seen examples of mergers where the partner was chosen for opportunistic reasons such as there being a vacant chief executive post. This was felt to be an easier merger option than one where a choice has to be made between two chief executives for the posts in the combined organisation.
It is also important when we talk about local government reform to be clear about whether we are talking about ‘merger’ or ‘redesign’ – the terms are not necessarily synonymous. By merger, we are probably talking about bolting existing local authority units together in groups of two or three and then fashioning a new organisation structure for a council now covering the area of the original authorities.
In the 1996 local government reorganisation in Wales, this is essentially what happened. The then county councils were abolished and the then district councils were merged into larger units at the same time taking over the county council functions. Some of us involved in the merger process in Wales whimsically commented that the then Welsh Office must have had ‘flat maps’. This was because some of the mergers taking place seemed to pay no cognisance to the physical geography of the constituent parts.
For example, the merger of Cynon Valley and Rhondda Valley into the new authority (RCT) seemed to ignore the fact that there were high mountains between the two valleys and poor transport links.
Redesign is a far more difficult exercise and involves starting with what is effectively a ‘clean sheet of paper’ as far as Welsh Local Government is concerned. A new pattern of local government would need to be developed that, effectively, ignores what currently exists and focuses instead on what will best meet the needs of the people of Wales over the next two to three decades.
Such an exercise is complex and would involve taking account of a range of factors when considering how future local government boundaries should be drawn. Some of the factors to be considered include the following:
- Population – there is no need for all local authorities to be of the same population size but there does need to be some idea of what would constitute an optimum size. Consideration also needs to be given to the structure of the population, particularly in relation to age and the impact of the ageing population and numbers of children being born.
- Demographic changes – demographic changes in an area can take place for a number of reasons including: growth in residences, changes in employment patterns and ageing populations. Any redesign of local government needs to consider possible demographic changes in the years ahead.
- Need for services – based on a range of factors such as population size, population structure and physical environment, consideration would need to be given to the need for local government services and the ease of delivery of those services in the years ahead.
- Equality of resources – like many parts of the UK, there are large variations within Wales in terms of income and wealth. This has implications for a local authority’s ability to raise revenue through council tax and charges. Many parts of the current Welsh local government system bring together some of the poorest parts of Wales, with the consequent dearth of resources. Consideration should be given to options for new local authorities that provide some degree of equalisation of income and wealth by combining richer and poorer communities in one local authority.
- Physical geography – this has already been touched on and in redesigning local government the physical geography of possible local government units and the ease of transportation between different parts of the area need to be considered.
- Community cohesion – potential new local government units will probably comprise a number of different communities with different cultures and backgrounds. The extent to which these various communities might cohese or fragment needs to be considered.
- Employment and travel to work patterns – changes in the labour markets mean that travel to work patterns from different residential areas have changed and will continue to change in the future. For example, in the South Wales valleys many of the travel to work patterns of local communities now operate in a North-South manner whereas existing local government units operate on an East-West basis. Future changes in travel to work patterns are a key consideration in any redesign of Welsh local government.
Not surprisingly, most debate on local government reform tends to focus on the merger of existing units because this is a relatively easy thing to do. It is only relatively easy since although such mergers could be easily done in most commercial organisations, the political and consultative nature of local government still makes it a difficult exercise. However, redesign of local government from a zero base is a very complex exercise which needs analysis and consideration of a large volume of data and imaginative ideas about future options.
Although redesign is more difficult, if done properly it is likely to generate a more robust configuration for local government than the merger approach.
