Westminster Report

BY Mark Francois, Member of Parliament for Rayleigh and Wickford & Shadow Armed Forces Minister.
Why we don’t need “Local Government Reform” in Essex.
As your MP, I am completely opposed to Labour’s plans for “Local Government Reform” (LGR). In essence, this involves replacing our current structure of Local Government in Essex with five unitary councils.
Most locally to us, this would involve the creation of a so-called “South East Essex Unitary Authority” which would comprise the current local authorities of Castle Point, Rochford and Southend. This is an extremely bad idea for a host of reasons.
Firstly, the Government’s central claim that this would lead to one, more efficient, tier of Local Government in Essex is simply untrue.
We currently have a two-tier system with Essex County Council as the Upper Tier and a series of District/Borough/City Councils as the second tier. (The third tier of Town and Parish Councils – such as Rayleigh Town Council – is basically unaffected either way).
Labour’s proposals would create a “Mayor of Essex” with similar powers to Mayor Sadiq Khan in London, and a Combined Authority”, which is basically a glorified committee of senior councillors, who are not directly elected, by anybody.
The lower tier would then be five Unitary Authorities. In other words, we would go to a great deal of time and trouble and indeed expense (once all the costs of reorganisation, involving multiple redundancy payments have been paid) just to go from one two-tier system – to another. When I put this point to Labour’s Local Government Minister, Alison McGovern, in Parliament recently, she effectively had no answer.
Secondly, there is no guarantee that these Unitary Authorities would provide better services. Both Southend and Thurrock are already unitary authorities, which have major problems of their own. Thurrock, in particular, labours under a gigantic burden of debt, of well over £1/2 billion pounds. Under Labour’s proposals, we would have a “South West Essex Unitary Authority”, comprising Thurrock and Basildon, the latter of which is also now heavily indebted as well.
Combined, they would now carry over £1 billion of debt, from day one. My Wickford constituents, who would be part of this new authority, would then see their council tax rise inevitably, in order to service the interest payments on that gigantic debt. I know for a fact that this is extremely unpopular in Wickford – for obvious reasons.
Thirdly, these proposals are not actually about improving public services at all. Rather, they are a “Trojan Horse” – to facilitate Labour’s plans to build 1.5 million houses, during the course of this Parliament.
Nearly two years in, they are nowhere near it, having barely built a quarter of a million homes, and therefore part of this reorganisation is intended to dramatically speed that up, at the cost of our precious Green Belt across the county, not least within the Rochford District itself.
Under Labour’s proposals, Rochford, which is a semi-rural District, and has a large amount of Green Belt, would be forced into a shotgun marriage with Castle Point and Southend. You don’t have to be a genius to work out where all the new houses would then go.
Councillors in Southend have always cast covetous eyes over our Green Belt in Rochford and this would give them the opportunity to build on it. So, this has nothing to do with improving services, it’s just about covering us in concrete.
In fact, it’s worse. Rochford District Council is halfway through creating a new Local Plan. We are presently at what is called the “Regulation 18 Stage” – on which the Council has recently concluded a major consultation exercise. According to the Government’s timetable, by Christmas, Rochford District Council would then have to produce its “Regulation 19 Plan”, which includes identifying the precise sites where these houses would be built.
Labour are trying to compel Rochford District Council to accept 15,000 new dwellings, by 2043, something which our local infrastructure, including our roads, hospital capacity, schools and sewage system simply cannot cope with.
However, under Labour’s plans for LGR, we would effectively have to do this not once, but three times!
To explain that, after Rochford District Council had produced its own Local Plan (which would then be subject to a public inquiry overseen by a Government appointed Inspector) the new “South East Essex Unitary Authority” (it’s a catchy title, isn’t it?) would then be expected to produce a plan of its own. (That’s where the Southend Councillors try to build even more houses in Rochford). Then, when that process was complete, the new Mayor of Essex would then be obliged to develop an “Essex-wide spatial strategy”, which is basically code for a further plan, on top.
So, we would have to go through this extremely difficult, highly controversial process, THREE times and you can expect Labour to up the targets at every opportunity.
As the local MP, I’ve always been completely opposed to this system of “top down” housing targets, aided by civil servants in Whitehall who don’t live here, supported by a soulless computer algorithm. As the local MP, I don’t have a VOTE on any individual planning application, of whatever size, but I do have a VOICE, and I shall continue to argue to the best of my ability against this whole scheme.
Incidentally, I have been door knocking in my constituency for some 25 years, and I have never, once, EVER, had a constituent on their doorstep tell me that they wanted a “Mayor of Essex”. Somehow we’ve gotten by in this county without one for over a thousand years and absolutely the last thing we want in Essex is another Sadiq Khan!
The situation is made even more complicated by the local election results, which may mean that we see a new administration of Rochford District Council.
The previous Conservative-led administration, ably led by then Councillor Danielle Belton, was completely opposed to what the Government were proposing. However, a number of those Councillors, including Danielle herself, sadly lost their seats at the elections in May. It remains to be seen what attitude the new administration of Rochford District Council will take to all this.
However, one Reform candidate, Stuart Prior, who was elected as both the Essex County Councillor for Rayleigh West and the Rochford District Councillor for the Sweyne Park and Grange Ward, resigned just FOUR DAYS after being elected for “personal reasons”.
This followed his having been revealed in a national newspaper to have a history of posting diabolical tweets, including about black people. Reform knew this full well – and yet they let him stand for election, nevertheless.
As a result, we now have to have two by-elections (for both vacancies) in mid-June, which will cost the local council taxpayers in this area some £35,000. This is deeply ironic, because it has happened at the behest of a party who claimed on their election literature to be determined to reduce waste in Local Government!
Rayleigh residents may be pleased to hear that Danielle Belton is standing for re-election to Rochford District Council, in that vacancy in the Sweyne Park and Grange Ward and as an extremely effective past Leader of Rochford District Council, I very much hope that local residents will be minded to give her their vote, to get her back onto the Council – not least in view of all of the challenges that I have outlined above.
Incidentally, her husband Stuart Belton is standing for the County Council seat, and I very much hope he might enjoy resident’s support too.
Finally, if Labour were foolhardy enough to press on with their plans for LGR, then our policy in the Conservative Party is that they should not go ahead without a Referendum of all the people across the county of Essex – to test whether or not Labour’s plans enjoy popular support (which I very much doubt).
It would be unconscionable, having seen Labour so heavily defeated on the 7th of May, for them to try and impose LGR on us anyway. The very least that they could do would be to give us a vote on that specific question, so that the people of Essex can have their say. If they do, I will gladly vote “No” to the whole thing.
In summary, I am completely opposed to Labour’s policy of trying to cram 15,000 houses into the Rochford District Council area by 2043, and I am equally opposed to their proposals for LGR, which are designed, ultimately, to facilitate that.
I believe that Labour’s plan is unnecessary, highly expensive, would lead to chaos in Local Government for some two years while the reorganisation is taking place and, even when it is completed, the total saving in running costs for the five unitary councils across Essex – compared to what we have now, is barely £50 million a year. So, “The game’s not worth the candle”.
I will therefore continue to do my best, as the local MP, to persuade this woeful Labour Government to drop their dreadful plans for LGR – and hopefully their bonkers housing target as well.
Picture: Rayleigh and Wickford MP Mark Francois, with fellow Conservatives, including Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch MP, calling for an Essex-wide Referendum on Labour’s plans for Local Government Reform. (LGR)
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