Debating Unitary Status – Statement from Warwick District Council Leader, Councillor Andrew Mobbs

This is a debate that the County Council has initiated by themselves with no involvement or co-operation from Warwick District Council. Neither myself, Chris Elliott, or any other Councillor or Officer will be participating in that debate.

In comparison to other local authorities, we have coped remarkably well with the recession, making minimal changes to staffing levels, no cuts to our services and remaining in a very strong financial position; generating a surplus for 7 years running. We have our Fit for the Future programme in place to meet the service and financial challenges of the next five years without us needing to rely upon another round of local government reorganisation to save our services.

As a Council, we recognise that the world is changing and we will always need to respond to those changes in a positive way. We have been working on the City Deal and the new Joint Committee and the need to develop a sub-regional Strategic Economic Policy with the Local Enterprise Partnership, which if all Local Authorities were willing, would enable us to better support the economic development of the Coventry and Warwickshire sub region, better organise our transport systems and better co-ordinate our planning strategies. All of these could generate more resources for our communities as well as local government and lots more jobs and business opportunities.

Another national agenda for change affecting local government is the prospect of integrating health and social care, which is a very significant budget area for local government.

These factors, and others, mean that the debate the County Council has initiated is the wrong one.  It looks at things in a limited and narrow way and does not explore how things can or will be in the future given these and other changes to the world of local government. As stated above, we are already actively and positively participating in  local discussions regarding the City Deal, Single Economic Policy and the Joint Committee, and will be happy to take equal part in other worthwhile debates about how  best to deliver public services for the benefit of our communities.