Winchfield Parish Council Responds to Proposals for New Unitary Authorities

The Government is planning to replace the current two-tier system of county and district councils with unitary councils across the country. In Hampshire the 11 district councils, Hampshire County Council (HCC), Portsmouth City Council, Southampton City Council and Isle of Wight Council will all be replaced with new unitary councils. For Winchfield this will mean abolishing HCC and Hart District Council (HDC) and replacing the two with one council providing services such as adult social care, education, waste collection and highway maintenance. This new unitary authority will cover a much wider area than the current HDC area but smaller than the HCC area. There are no changes to town and parish councils proposed as part of this review and Winchfield Parish Council will remain. WPC has recently made a request to HDC that the number of councillors be increased from 5 to 7. 

All councils need to submit details of proposed unitary authorities to the Government by September 2025 with elections to the new councils in May 2027. The councils will exist as shadow councils for a year and becoming the only councils from May 2028.

At the current time council are working on preferred options for Hampshire. It has not been possible for all councils in Hampshire to agree a single vision and as such there are two competing options – one from HCC and East Hampshire District Council; the other from all 12 other councils in Hampshire including HDC which supports a unitary authority made up of Basingstoke and Deane, Rushmoor and Hart.

HCC and East Hampshire have looked at a number of options ranging from three to five unitary authorities across the whole of Hampshire. All options include a separate council for the Isle of Wight. The preferred option recommends four unitary authorities – a north and mid covering Basingstoke and Deane, East Hampshire, Hart, Rushmoor and Winchester; a south-west covering Eastleigh, New Forest, Southampton and Test Valley; a south-east covering Fareham Gosport, Havant and Portsmouth; and finally the Isle of Wight. HCC are consulting on this option between 21 July and 17 August. 

The alternative proposal from the 12 other councils in Hampshire including HDC set out two options. Both options include a north unitary council covering Basingstoke and Deane, Hart and Rushmoor. The only difference between the options concern the placement of the New Forest. Consultation is being undertaken on this proposal between 30 June and 17 August.

Winchfield Parish Council has responded to both consultations and below is a summary of what has been submitted:

Summary of the response to HCC and East Hampshire District Council proposal:

Winchfield Parish Council (WPC) has reviewed the paper presented to the Hampshire County Council (HCC) Cabinet meeting on 18 July as well as information provided via the HCC website and social media in arriving at these comments.

The Parish Council agrees with the presumption that to create an effective Local Government organisation in Hampshire the key issues are: the importance of scale, continuity, and minimising disaggregation to protect vulnerable service users and ensure financial and operational resilience.

WPC were pleased to note the intent to ensure that a future unitary council would invest in Councillors as the vital link between residents and the Council – empowering them to lead, convene, and deliver.

The Parish Council agrees that it is essential that the experiences of other Local Authorities that have undertaken Local Government Reorganisation, are considered and absorbed. In particular, the importance of stability and minimised disruption in the short-term – particularly for high-risk services delivered to vulnerable residents, is vital.

WPC endorses the merits of adopting anchor infrastructure, services and frameworks, to minimise the risks of transition and enable long-term transformation opportunities.

The Parish Council was pleased to read that the Minister for Local Government had declared in a written statement that neighbourhood area committees, led by ward councillors, represent the best route to a simplified and standardised system of local area-working and governance. It is therefore expected that the updated submission to the Government on 26 September provides unambiguous proposals on the following topics:

• How the County Council’s review of opportunities for neighbourhood empowerment following Local Government Reorganisation will be strengthened by incorporating insights from the County Council’s Engagement Plan.
• Given that the Government has endorsed Neighbourhood Area Committees as a preferred model it would be expected to see how the County Council advocates an approach that facilitates co-design with communities and partners to ensure it is inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to local needs.
• How the new unitary councils will enable formal collaboration with town and parish councils through charters and options for double devolution, setting out shared responsibilities and opportunities for local decision-making.

WPC is concerned at the scale and size of the proposed mainland unitary councils. As a relatively small, semi-rural parish but also very active the Parish Council needs processes that guarantee direct access to the officers in the new unitary councils.

The proposal to the Government in September should include unambiguous proposals to address the mechanisms required for effective communication via Neighbourhood Committees with parish and town councils.

A major reorganisation of Local Government on this scale is an opportunity to re-engineer service delivery to both improve the quality and reduce costs. The final proposal should provide clarity on how this will be achieved especially for the most critical and expensive services.

Summary of the response to the proposal from all 12 other councils in Hampshire:

A future Unitary Council should invest in Councillors as the vital link between residents and the Council – empowering them to lead, convene, and deliver.

The Parish Council is pleased to read that the Minister for Local Government has declared in a written statement that neighbourhood area committees, led by ward councillors, represent the best route to a simplified and standardised system of local area-working and governance. We therefore expect that both submissions to the Government on 26 September will provide unambiguous proposals on the following topics:

• Given that the Government has endorsed Neighbourhood Area Committees as a preferred model the Parish Council would expect to see how the 12 Council proposal advocates an approach that facilitates co-design with communities and partners to ensure it is inclusive, sustainable, and responsive to local needs.
• How the new Unitary Councils will enable formal collaboration with town and parish councils through charters and options for double devolution, setting out shared responsibilities and opportunities for local decision-making.

At this juncture Winchfield Parish Council is unable to make a simple choice between either of the 2 options. The detailed submission made by Hampshire County Council and North East Hampshire District Council has been reviewed but there is no similarly detailed submission from the alternative 12 Councils other than a 90 minute online seminar held on 15 July by the Hart, Rushmoor and Basingstoke& Dean Councils.

It is accepted that creating smaller authorities may be geographically closer to communities and therefore give a perception of being more reflective of local need, but there is insufficient evidence to confirm if the lack of scale will be financially sustainable and resilient.

This consultation is therefore limited in its value until the 12 Council proposition is publicised in full.

Winchfield Parish Council supports the presumption that to create an effective Local Government organisation in Hampshire the key issues are: the importance of scale, continuity, and minimising disaggregation to protect vulnerable service users and ensure financial and operational resilience.

The Parish Council endorses the merits of adopting anchor infrastructure, services and frameworks, to minimise the risks of transition and enable long-term transformation opportunities. Evidence is required to set out the financial and logistical burden of establishing new ‘greenfield’ unitary authorities which have no foundation or track record for the delivery of high-risk statutory services. What are the plans to minimise transition risks, particularly in safeguarding, social care, and education?

It is agreed that it is essential that the experiences of other local authorities that have undertaken Local Government Reorganisation, are considered and absorbed. In particular, the importance of stability and minimised disruption in the short-term, particularly for high-risk services delivered to vulnerable residents, is vital.

The submission to the Government in September should include unambiguous proposals to address the mechanisms required for effective communication via Neighbourhood Committees with parish and town councils.

A major reorganisation of local government on this scale is an opportunity to re-engineer service delivery to both improve the quality and reduce costs. The final proposal should provide clarity on how this will be achieved especially for the most critical and expensive services.

The Parish Council is concerned that Local Government Reorganisation is a risk to local identity. The anticipated 12 Council option may be perceived to be less remote, but what are the challenges in achieving economies of scale, managing costs, delivering a safe transition, and positioning the new Unitary Councils to innovate and transform services?  Will a financially less resilient unitary councils require more financial support to ensure safe delivery of statutory services, possibly resulting in further reductions in discretionary services and necessitate increases in Council Tax levels?