Issue - meetings

REPORT OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE

This report sets out the proposed submission to Government, developed by all eleven Hertfordshire local authorities and the Police and Crime Commissioner, for the future organisation of Local Government in Hertfordshire. Given the importance of the issue this report is being presented to Full Council to facilitate a debate on the options, prior to Cabinet’s meeting on 19 November 2025 at which the decision will be taken as to which option is preferred by the Council.

RESOLVED:

(1)         That Council noted the content of this report and the draft Hertfordshire submission document at Appendix A which formed the proposed collective submission to Government on Local Government Reorganisation.

(2)         That Council indicated its support for a preferred option, to be considered by Cabinet as part of its deliberations on 19 November 2025, was to submit the proposal and identify a two unitary option as preferred.

REASON FOR DECISIONS: On 5 February 2025, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution wrote to all leaders of two-tier councils to formally invite them to develop proposals for a single tier of local government in their counties. Cabinet is legally required to make the decision as to this Council’s response to the Minister’s request, but the recommendations allow all councillors to consider and debate this important issue before an indicative nonbinding vote, which will be considered by Cabinet as part of its decision making on 19 November 2025.

Audio recording – 11 minutes 50 seconds

The Chair advised that Council would debate the item and pass an indicative resolution that would express a preferred option and that Cabinet would be required to give due regard to any resolution passed by Council, but could not be legally bound by that resolution. Cabinet Members could participate in the debate and express a lawful preference but not commit in advance to follow the resolution of Full Council.

The Chair additionally advised that dual hatter County and District Council Members could also participate in the debate and express a lawful preference without unlawful predetermination in the debate at the Full Council meeting at Hertfordshire County Council on 19 November 2025.

To ensure that the Council met the required deadline for submissions on 28 November 2025, the Chair advised that the Cabinet decision on this item would be urgent and therefore not subject to call in. Formal notice of this, including the reasons for urgency had been published on the Council website.

The Chief Executive presented the report entitled ‘Local Government Reorganisation in Hertfordshire – Submission of Final Proposals‘ and advised that:

·             The submission document was a culmination of several months of work from local authorities across Hertfordshire and it was recognised that Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) had and would continue to impact workloads in the coming years.

·             Authorities in Hertfordshire had remained united throughout discussions on LGR and the relationships built between them would help in the upcoming stages.

·             A single submission document had been produced that met all the criteria set by the Government with options for two, three, and four unitary authorities contained within.

·             It was acknowledged that each option would work better for some areas of Hertfordshire than others as they each had their advantages and disadvantages.

·             Modernisation, better service delivery, removal of silos and resetting relationships with communities were just some of the potential benefits that could come from LGR.

·             Shared ambitions that underpinned the submission were set out at paragraph 8.5 of the cover report.

·             The six criteria that would be used by the Government to judge submissions were set out at paragraph 7.3 and they would be equally weighted.

·             All options that met the criteria would go to statutory public consultation in 2026.

·             The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) stated that the recent decision on LGR in Surrey would not be an indication of how decisions would be made on LGR elsewhere.

·             The submission document was as accurate and evidence based as possible as the proposals were necessarily based on assumptions with detail to follow as explained in paragraph 8.8 onwards.

·             Work on LGR would continue to evolve with the acknowledgement that the new unitary authorities would be responsible for future decision making once created.

·             Community engagement on LGR options in Hertfordshire took place in September and was referenced within the submission document and summarised at paragraphs 8.14 and 8.15 of the cover report.

·             Devolution was mentioned within the submission, however, MHCLG had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51