Oxfordshire County Council group leaders IAN HUDSPETH (Conservative), LIZ BRIGHOUSE (Labour) and RICHARD WEBBER (Lib Dems) explain proposals for a single unitary council. 

LAST week we said that local government in Oxfordshire needs a fresh start.

Our proposal is to abolish all six councils – the county, districts and city councils – and create one, new council for the whole of Oxfordshire.

The current two-tier structure of local government is costly and unsustainable.

Two separate studies by local government experts, one commissioned by the district and city councils themselves, have confirmed this.

Both studies showed that a single council for Oxfordshire would save at least £20m every year – enough to fill more than 300,000 potholes or provide one million hours of home care.

That’s wasting £400,000 every week on running six councils instead of one that would be better spent on providing services. Some leaders of the district and city councils were quick to dismiss the proposals.

They say the proposals won’t meet the needs of local communities and will block government investment in infrastructure.

These are exactly the issues the One Oxfordshire proposal addresses!

Councils have been put under enormous financial pressure as government funding has been reduced in Oxfordshire.

At the same time, the population of the county is ageing and changing, which is increasing demand for services – particularly children’s and adult social care.

One statistic highlights the scale of the challenge: the number of over 85s will double by 2030.

These are people living across Oxfordshire, in every district and city area. As the local authority responsible for social services, we are very focused on meeting future needs.

Councils in Oxfordshire – county, districts and city – have responded well by becoming more efficient and finding new ways to support people and communities.

However, we need to plan for increasing demand for all services at a time when government funding is reducing.

We are already reaching the limit to our collective ability to protect frontline services without cutting services or changing the way local government is run.

The districts suggest budget pressures are only a problem for the county council, as if the two layers of local government served different communities.

Our ‘One Oxfordshire’ proposal is designed to meet the different needs of all Oxfordshire communities.

By joining up ‘people’ services such as housing, social services and benefits we can provide better services for everyone – including those with the greatest needs.

The new council would have ‘area boards’ – based on the existing district and city areas and made up of the same councillors who also sit on the unitary council.

They would take decisions for their area, including planning and local services such as parking and street cleaning.

We think they should also have powers to vary the council tax for their area to reflect different local priorities.

One councillor would be accountable for all council services in your area, and take decisions affecting your community and the whole county.

This is more locally accountable than the twotier system of buck-passing and overlapping responsibilities.

The districts also say that the One Oxfordshire proposal undermines a ‘devolution’ deal with Government to deliver infrastructure investment.

We don’t agree. Devolution requires functions such as planning, housing and transport to join up.

One approach is to keep all of the existing councils and add a ‘combined authority’ and an elected mayor on top.

A single council achieves the same result by reducing, not increasing, layers of local government, and could still deliver a devolution deal.

The county council is actively involved in developing the devolution proposal with the districts and city councils.

But we have to be honest – adding more layers of local government does not feel like the best solution for Oxfordshire when money is tight. Crucially, a devolution deal does not reduce costs or protect services.

If Oxfordshire is required to have a combined authority and mayor in return for central government investment we should consider it seriously.

The Government has said clearly that it will consider devolution and reorganisation bids separately so we can, and will, go for both.

This proposal has been published as a draft so anyone with an interest in Oxfordshire’s future can join the conversation.

It will be improved with feedback from residents and service users.

We hope that the leaders of the district and city councils will also take part so together we can address their concerns.

This comment piece is part of a series about proposals for an Oxfordshire 'super council.