UK Parliament / Open data

North Yorkshire (Structural Changes) Order 2022

My Lords, this order was laid before this House on 24 January 2022. The other place approved it on 22 February 2022. If approved by this House and made, it will implement a locally led proposal submitted by North Yorkshire County Council for a single unitary council for the whole of North Yorkshire county.

In my introductory words for the Cumbria order, I set out the Government’s views on the benefits of strong local leadership. The order will establish for the people of North Yorkshire a new single unitary council. Implementing this proposal and establishing this unitary authority will enable stronger leadership and far greater engagement both at the strategic level and with its communities at the most local level. The order will also pave the way, as envisaged in the levelling-up White Paper, for a significant devolution deal involving a directly elected mayor for North Yorkshire together with York.

I set out the full detail of the process for all three areas undergoing unitarisation in my previous speech regarding Cumbria. I will not repeat the detail of the invitation, the criteria or the dates of the statutory consultation here, but will highlight the matters specific to North Yorkshire. When issuing the invitation to the principal councils to submit proposals for unitary local government, the then Secretary of State, my right honourable friend the Member for Newark, Robert Jenrick, invited City of York Council alongside North Yorkshire County Council and its seven district councils. Two locally led proposals for local government reorganisation in North Yorkshire were received, one for a single unitary council and one for two unitary councils.

7 pm

Turning now to the responses to the statutory consultation in North Yorkshire, we received almost 4,300 responses on the two proposals. Some 3,600 responses, 84% of the total, were from residents living in the area affected and 53% of these were in favour of the single unitary council. In addition, 52% of business respondents supported the single unitary council proposal, along with the majority of public sector partners, including 68% of the health organisations which responded, nine out of 12 education organisations and police and fire organisations.

Noble Lords will recall that my right honourable friend the then Secretary of State announced his decision on the proposals. A Written Ministerial Statement was made on 21 July 2021, which I repeated in this House. In reaching this decision, my right honourable friend made a balanced judgment, assessing both proposals against the three criteria to which I have referred. He also had regard to all representations received, including responses to the consultation, and all other relevant information available to him. He concluded that the two unitary councils proposal did not meet the criterion of improving local government and service delivery across the area or the credible geography criterion. He concluded that the single unitary council proposal for North Yorkshire met all three criteria.

Indeed, the Government believe there is a powerful case for implementing this locally led proposal for change. It will improve local government by enhancing social care and safeguarding services through closer connection with related services such as housing, leisure and benefits. It will improve local government by offering opportunities for improved strategic decision-making in such areas as housing, planning and transport. It will provide improvements to local partnerships working with other public sector bodies and generate savings, estimated by the county council to be £31.9 million per annum. It will preserve service delivery over a county-wide area that has an established local identity and which is easily understood by residents and will provide a single point of contact so that residents, businesses and local communities will be able to access all council services from one place. If noble Lords approve this order, there will be from 1 April 2023 a single unitary council for North Yorkshire delivering the improvements I have just outlined.

We have prepared this order in constructive and collaborative discussion with all the councils concerned and I take this opportunity to thank everybody involved in this process. Our discussions with the councils have included discussing the transitional and electoral arrangements, which are key to how the councils will drive forward implementation. Where there has been unanimous agreement between all the councils, we have adopted their preferred approach. There were some differences in views and, where they have existed, my right honourable friend the Secretary of State has considered all the differing views and reached a decision accordingly.

Turning now to the detail of the order, I will highlight the key provisions. The order provides that on 1 April 2023 the districts of Craven, Hambleton, Harrogate, Richmondshire, Ryedale, Scarborough and

Selby will be abolished. The councils of those districts will be wound up and dissolved. In their place, their functions will be transferred to the new unitary North Yorkshire council. The order also provides for appropriate transitional arrangements. These include that in May 2022 there will be elections for the new unitary council, which will assume full powers from 1 April 2023; these elections will be on the basis of a 90-member authority with 88 single-member electoral divisions and one two-member division. Subsequent elections to the unitary council will be in May 2027 and every four years thereafter. We expect that the Local Government Boundary Commission for England will undertake a full electoral review before the May 2027 elections. Parish council elections due in May 2023 and May 2024 will be brought forward to May 2022 to align with the unitary council electoral cycle. There will be a duty to be placed on all existing councils to co-operate during the transitional period until 1 April 2023.

As I set out in the previous debate, if this order is approved and made, we intend to issue a direction. This direction would ensure the new unitary council has appropriate oversight of the commitments that its predecessor councils may enter into during the transitional period and which the new unitary council will take on from 1 April 2023. Before issuing any such direction, we will invite councils’ views on a draft.

Finally, with sincere apologies, I must draw noble Lords’ attention to the correction slip issued to correct three minor errors in Schedule 1 to the draft order. These corrections remove an extraneous “and” between Harrogate Fairfax and Harrogate Starbeck wards, correct a misspelling of the name of Byram and Brotherton ward, and ensure that the Mid Craven electoral division is in the correct alphabetical order. We are very sorry for these minor errors in the original text of the draft order.

In conclusion, through this order, we are seeking to replace the existing local government structures which were set up in 1974 in North Yorkshire with a new council that will be able to deliver high-quality, sustainable local services for the people of North Yorkshire. This council will be able to provide stronger and more effective leadership at both the strategic and most local levels. It will open the way, with the city of York, for a significant devolution deal referred to in our levelling-up White Paper. I commend the order to the Committee and once again apologise for those minor errors. I beg to move.

Type
Proceeding contribution
Reference
819 cc513-5GC 
Session
2021-22
Chamber / Committee
House of Lords Grand Committee
Back to top