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County Durham (Structural Change) Order 2008

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the County Durham (Structural Change) Order 2008. The noble Baroness said: We now come to Durham. The order establishes the new unitary County Durham Council. It implements a proposal that Durham County Council submitted to us in response to our invitation to councils issued in October 2006 in parallel with our White Paper. We have judged this proposal against the same five criteria set out in our invitations to councils against which, as I discussed earlier, we assessed all 26 of the proposals that we originally received. Again, as I informed the House on 5 December, our judgment was that if this proposal for the single unitary Durham Council were implemented, there would be a reasonable likelihood that it would achieve the outcomes specified by all five criteria in the invitation. That is, we believe that the proposal, if implemented, will achieve the outcomes on strategic leadership, neighbourhood flexibility, empowerment, delivery of value for money and efficiency in public services specified in the criteria. Equally, we believe that the change, if made, is affordable and is supported by a broad cross-section of partners and stakeholders. We also received a proposal for a unitary authority from a number of district councils. However, we judged that that proposal was not reasonably likely to meet any of the criteria. Our judgment on affordability reflects Durham County Council’s proposal and, having regard to all the other material and representations we have received, including the advice that our independent financial experts provided on the financial viability of the proposals, the expectation is that the change in Durham will lead to savings of more than £11 million annually once the new unitary council is established. Our judgment on the support criterion reflects that there was support from public agencies including, for example, the PCT, the strategic health authority, the police and fire and rescue. There was also support from the North East Chamber of Commerce and the CBI. All those from the business sector who responded expressed broad support. There was a mixed response from the public. Responses during the consultation were fairly evenly split between those expressing concerns and those highlighting the benefits. As with Northumberland, we were able to look at the results of the referendum held in 2004, which asked voters explicitly whether they wanted unitary authorities. In Durham, of those who voted, 50.6 per cent supported a single Durham unitary. In short, the evidence we received, in particular that which I have just described, led us to conclude that if the proposal is implemented, the expectation is that the level of support for it will be sufficient for it to be a success.  As with the previous orders, this order is not ““one size fits all””. It is a specific approach that allows local government in Durham to adopt the arrangements best suited to it. We therefore prepared this order following consultation and full discussion with the Durham County Council and all the affected authorities in the area. Like the order establishing Northumberland, this one provides that from, 1 April 2009, there will be a single tier of local government in Durham. The existing district councils will be dissolved, and the county council will be transformed into a new unitary council having both district and county functions. It makes provisions for the key transitional arrangements, in particular providing for the establishment of an implementation executive to be lead by the county council, whose membership will be drawn from the county and all the district councils. The membership and make-up of the implementation executive was discussed in detail with all the affected councils. A consensus was reached, which is reflected in the order. It provides that the county council will have the function of preparing for and facilitating the economic, effective, efficient and timely transfer of the district councils’ functions, property, rights and liabilities to the new council. The order provides that those transitional functions be discharged by the implementation executive prior to the election of the new County Durham Council in May 2008. It also provides for the creation of a team of officers in each area to provide the necessary support for implementation, again drawn from the county and all the district councils. Like the Northumberland order, this order provides for elections in 2008, which is outside the normal county council election cycle, so it also makes consequential provision so that the following elections are in 2013. That restores Durham to the normal election cycle for county authorities. We have already discussed, in the context of the Northumberland order, the role of the Boundary Committee and Electoral Commission in determining when the new electoral arrangements should be implemented. The issues are the same for Durham. In short, this order will establish a new unitary County Durham which, in common with the others we have been discussing today, will have the form of local governance that local people should expect and demand. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the County Durham (Structural Change) Order 2008. 6th Report from the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments, 7th Report from the Merits Committee.—(Baroness Andrews.)