Devolution vs Local Government Reorganisation: The debate at the heart of Lincolnshire’s future

The devolution of power to a combined Greater Lincolnshire authority will be on the wishlist of many Lincolnshire councillors when the new Tory leader is elected in September.

However there continue to be fears the move could lead to local reorganisation down the line which would see all of Lincolnshire’s councils dissolved and replaced.

Speaking to councillors and media, it’s easy to feel the two ideas of devolution and local government reorganisation can get conflated, mixed together. So what’s the difference?

Devolution – the creation of an all new power

Greater Lincolnshire authorities Lincolnshire County Council, North Lincolnshire Council and North East Lincolnshire Council have been leading the charge on the latest bids to get government to devolve powers to them since way before the first attempt back in 2016.

Under devolution, a new layer of beaurocracy would be created on top of the existing 10 unitary and two-tier councils.

This would be a new overarching council, led potentially by a directly-elected mayor, would draw down powers and funding the government usually controls in a bid to deal with them locally.

If you were to speak to councillors locally, they might tell you that their authorities did this with reasonable success over the past two years, tackling and handing out COVID support from the ground rather than the government taking on the responsibility.

Lincolnshire County Councillor Colin Davie. | Image: Daniel Jaines

Speaking recently to Conservative County Councillor Colin Davie, the executive portfolio holder for economy and environment, he told Local Democracy Reporters that local councillors that local members understands Lincolnshire “very well”.

“The county understands the wider strategic view that you need to have to build the infrastructure and build the economy and the core services,” he said.

“Government needs to trust places a lot more… ultimately our decisions will be judged by our voters, the people who live in Lincolnshire and if they don’t like what we decide they’ll have a chance to sanction us.

“We should be allowed to shape what the future looks like and work with government to do that. Take some of the government money that they spend unwisely on benefits and management of systems around health and spend it better locally, get better outcomes, better bang for the buck.”

Local Government Reorganisation – Is it worth having 10 councils?

However, what some, particularly in district councils, fear is that from the point of the creation of the new authority it would then begin drawing “up” – taking responsibilities away from councils instead of government and whittling them down to a shadow of the authority they had before.

This, they fear, would lead to Local Government Reorganisation – the dissolving of all the authorities leaving only the one.

In a recent interview Labour leader of the City of Lincoln Council Ric Metcalfe told reporters that councils locally could do a “much better job” than government.

“We know our area and we can collaborate locally to get those things done,” he said.

However, he said: “It remains quite unclear about whether over time, this new Combined Authority might start to take on or it’s sometimes been described as sucking up some of the functions that are currently performed by district councils.”

Labour leader Councillor Ric Metcalfe | Photo: CoLC

For instance, he suggested there could be questions over why the districts control waste collection separate to county council which sorts and recycles the waste, why not have it all dealt with under one authority? Or whether housing could be dealt with on a wider scale.

“Before you know it, district councils have been stripped of all of the current things that are important to them, which they think they do well and all of a sudden, the question that arises is, well, ‘what’s the point of having district councils then’?”

Councils were disappointed to have not been involved in the latest round of deals announced in February.

Invites instead went to Cornwall, Derbyshire & Derby, Devon, Plymouth and Torbay, Durham, Hull & East Yorkshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk, Nottinghamshire & Nottingham, and Suffolk.

However, bosses have previously said they remain committed to the next bid, expected sometime next year.

How that will see Lincolnshire looking in the future is still smoke in the crystal ball it seems.