Suffolk County Council is rethinking its approach to its legal challenge against the Government's local government reorganisation (LGR) plans, after newly released correspondence revealed the Secretary of State rejected his own civil servants' advice.
The disclosure, contained in the Government's formal reply to Suffolk County Council's pre-action letter, shows that officials advised that a single unitary authority was ‘the strongest proposal for Suffolk’, while the three unitary option – the Government’s favoured LGR plan for the county – is ‘complicated by a significant boundary change request modification.’
However, it also emphasised that it was 'for the Secretary of State to decide which proposal best met the [LGR] criteria.'
The revelation has prompted councillors to call an extraordinary cabinet meeting to determine whether to continue with formal legal action, which was launched by the council’s Reform UK leadership in May following the local elections to prevent the county being divided into three unitary authorities.
The council will consider whether communities secretary Steve Reed’s decision exceeds his legal powers, fails to follow statutory process, and departs from the Government's own published criteria without clear justification.
Council leader Michael Hadwen said the correspondence did not make for convincing reading, adding that the Secretary of State appeared to be forcing Suffolk into a ‘chaotic reorganisation’ with a ‘blatant disregard’ for the advice of his civil servants.
A statement from the council said its legal challenge is not about seeking to deliver one unitary council, but about calling a halt to the process entirely and ensuring Government decisions affecting residents are fully transparent.
A Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) spokesperson responded: ‘Decisions on local government reorganisation are taken transparently and in line with the published criteria.’
