Essex leaders want cut-down model of five councils

The majority of council leaders in Essex have lent their support to the idea of having five all-purpose authorities in the county, in what will be a radical shake-up of local democracy.

The current two-tier system of 15 district, unitary and county councils in Essex would be dramatically changed as part of the plan.

Ten out of the 15 political leaders favour the five-council proposal, which is due to be sent to government by 21 March.

One of the leaders in favour - Basildon's Gavin Callaghan (Lab) - previously told the BBC it was a "real opportunity to take back control" of services.

Councillors across the county are due to discuss this over the next week, but Westminster will ultimately make a decision.

The interim plan on Local Government Reorganisation for Greater Essex states that this model will retain "a sense of local place and communities".

The Conservative leaders of Harlow, Braintree, Epping and Essex county have not backed the five-council model - and neither has Thurrock's Labour leader John Kent.

The Labour government has been encouraging areas across England to put together devolution plans, and to elect regional mayors who will be given more powers.

The five new councils in Essex would be unitary authorities, meaning they take charge of all local services such as bin collections, highways and social care.

Essex County Council's social care currently takes up more than half its £1bn budget.

Each unitary authority would govern between 320,000 to 500,000 people and would have an estimated 60-90 elected members - which the Essex plan says will ultimately cut down the number of councillors across the county.

Politically, the fewer and larger the councils are in Essex, the more likely the Conservatives would win control. This is on the basis of how people in the county have voted in recent elections.

And this is partly why Labour and other parties have been calling for five and the Tories preferring fewer.

Essex County Council leader Kevin Bentley, who favours larger unitary authorities, said: "The worst outcome for local government reorganisation in Essex would be to recreate the mistakes of the past elsewhere in designing new councils that are too small in terms of population and income – meaning people ending up paying out more in council tax which means less money for family budgets."

Elections to the new councils are expected in May 2027 and they will take over from existing councils in April 2028.

This May's county council elections were cancelled to allow local authorities to focus on developing the reorganisation plans.

Chelmsford City Council's Liberal Democrat leader Stephen Robinson said: "Dissembling the county and district councils: that is the difficult bit."

Existing contracts will have to be split, changed and ended, and staff moved into the new councils.

The Liberal Democrats, Reform UK and the Greens argued that the elections should still have gone ahead.

Elections for the first Greater Essex mayor, representing 1.8 million people, are planned for May 2026.

The report notes that the role of the police, fire and crime commissioner will end and its roles will be taken on by the new mayor.

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