You can read the extended piece here, and it answers some of the issues raised by councillors and residents alike. And for those of you who want to get stuck into the issues, get involved with the Cambs Unitaries Campaign.
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s invitation letter is here – the one referred to in the above link, to which I blogged about the local response here.
The things from the ministerial update that might be of interest to people round my way include:
“It is essential that councils continue to deliver their business-as-usual services and duties, which remain unchanged until reorganisation is complete. This includes progress towards the government’s ambition of universal coverage of up-to-date local plans as quickly as possible. “
So…carry on with the local plan arrangements.
Criterion 1: A proposal should seek to achieve for the whole of the area concerned the establishment of a single tier of local government
This means Cambridge and South Cambs cannot go off and do their own thing leaving the other districts to themselves. The whole of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will have to decide how many unitaries they want for the entire area.
Criterion 2: Unitary local government must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks
Note the 500,000 figure is a guide, not a target.
“We have noted that we understand that there should be flexibility, especially given our ambition to build out devolution and take account of housing growth, alongside Local Government Reorganisation”
This means that a ‘Greater Cambridge Unitary Council’ should look at what the geography will look like *after* the major house building programmes have been completed – something that will be shaped by Peter Freeman’s Cambridge Growth Company. Hence turning the entire Combined Authority area into a single unitary council is a non-starter.
“Where this is the case, we have highlighted, as the invitation sets out, that “existing district areas should be considered the building blocks for proposals, but where there is a strong justification more complex boundary changes will be considered””
Personally I think Greater Cambridge and the districts within them should look at incorporating some of the neighbouring market towns over the existing county border. (This diagram below being from a 2001 Structure Plan Review).
Furthermore, while ministers have instructed councils to use districts as the initial building blocks, they have not ruled out using others – such as the earlier, smaller, rural and urban districts. This is my case for using the Redcliffe Maud Report recommendations from 1969 that were incorporated into Labour’s 1970 manifesto..
Above – the abandoned ‘Greater Cambridge’ unitary of 1969 in Redcliffe Maud.
There is a clear case for incorporating Royston, Haverhill, and Newmarket into a Greater Cambridge Unitary as they sit within its economic sphere of influence, and also have a critical mass of commuters for work and education. Therefore it makes sense to have those residents being able to influence transport policy decisions that affect so many of them.
“We confirmed to areas that the Government will preserve the important historic counties in their current ceremonial roles and will ensure that the ceremonial rights and privileges of an area will be maintained after any reorganisation of local government.”
Furthermore, I’d have unitary councillors as ex-officio/automatic members of those town and parish councils so as to be a link between the unitary councils and the most local tier.
Criterion 3: Unitary structures must prioritise the delivery of high quality and sustainable public services to citizens
This for me depends on ministers facing down HM Treasury and giving councils meaningful revenue-raising powers independent of Whitehall. Furthermore, services like SEND/Education, and social care should be taken out of local budgets and calculated nationally using a formula grant on the basis of population and economic/social need. No council should be allowed to go bankrupt because of spiralling education and social care costs it cannot control.
Criterion 4: Proposals should show how councils in the area have sought to work together in coming to a view that meets local needs and is informed by local views
Well ***this could be fun*** because at the moment no substantive consultation with the public has been done. Furthermore, there are a host of other consultations happening (Such as this yesterday with Cambridge University) that the Mayor of the Combined Authority should convene meetings of communications representatives of major local institutions to try and co-ordinate who does which consultations and when.
Criterion 5: New unitary structures must support devolution arrangements
Well no one ever asked us about Cambridgeshire and Peterborough’s Combined Authority. That said, there’s nothing to stop incorporating surrounding market towns into the existing CPCA. Parliament is Sovereign. If ministers want to make it happen, they just need to table the legislation.
Criterion 6: New unitary structures should enable stronger community engagement and deliver genuine opportunity for neighbourhood empowerment
I can’t see these being clear unless they are accompanied by a host of other policies outside of the Minister for Local Government’s remit – eg Citizenship Education for adults, and the new generation of citizenship education being prepared as part of the Department for Education’s independent curriculum review. Best get talking to the Schools’ Minister!
Challenges and opportunities
Ministers list:
- Funding reforms
- Local public service reforms
- Strong community voicce
- Pathway to devolution
…as challenges and opportunities. Actually, one big challenge is the artificially short time frame within which to make the changes. Had Michael Gove not been so stubborn and had he listened to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee back in 2023, the previous government could have passed the short piece of legislation needed to establish a new royal commission on the governance of England, ready to start work as soon as the general election was over. But that didn’t happen.
“Local Government Reorganisation should facilitate better and sustained community engagement and needs a clear and accountable system of local area-working and governance. Neighbourhood Area Committees, led by frontline ward councillors, offer a model of place-based engagement and leadership which maximises the structural efficiencies brought about by Local Government Reorganisation and strengthens localism and community participation across all areas.”
Well this is *very awkward* for Cambridge City Council following the abolition of its area committees. The ambition from councillors was to have had a replacement for the old quartet of area committees (which in the grand scheme of things were talking shops because Conservative-led county councils refused to participate meaningfully in them – just ask the residents of Cherry Hinton and the Church End rat run).
I don’t really know what the answer is because the city council simply does not have the resources to staff a new generation of local neighbourhood forums. It comes back to money. Ministers have provided Cambridgeshire & Peterborough councils with just over £300,000 to help with the costs of the transition (See the written ministerial statement to Parliament by the Minister for Local Government on 03 June 2025) but just over £40k per council won’t go far at all. Successive governments simply will not allow local councils in/around Cambridge to tax enough of the wealth generated here to pay for over-stretched services, long-overdue maintenance, and much-needed new public and civic buildings – not just the big ones but also the neighbourhood level ones.
“Is there anything we can do now?”
Yes – email your councillors and ask them if they have seen the ministerial publication. Then see if between you, you can start some discussions in your neighbourhood.
Food for thought?
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