Alongside Harlow Council’s legal challenge, Council Leader Dan Swords has written directly to Prime Minister Andy Burnham urging him to stop Local Government Reorganisation in Essex – warning that the plans would be disastrous for Harlow and could bring the town’s transformation to a halt.
The strongly worded letter warns that replacing Harlow Council with a vast new authority stretching from Great Chesterford to Chigwell would force Harlow to spend tens of millions of pounds on its own abolition – money that would instead be taken away from local services, regeneration and delivering for residents.
It would also mean Harlow no longer having its own council run by councillors elected solely to represent the town, with the large majority of councillors on the proposed new authority coming from Epping and Uttlesford.
The intervention comes as Harlow is undergoing its biggest transformation in generations. Cranes dominate the skyline. The town centre is being rebuilt. New council homes are rising. Neighbourhoods are being renewed. Major private investment is flowing back into the town. Pride, confidence and optimism are returning.
In his letter to the Prime Minister, Councillor Swords writes:
“Harlow is transforming like no other place in the country, both in bricks and mortar, but also in hope, belief and optimism.”
But Local Government Reorganisation threatens that progress. Councillor Swords warns that it would take a council currently “delivering at extraordinary pace” and force its leadership, people and resources to turn away from rebuilding Harlow and towards dismantling their own organisation – risking years of uncertainty and paralysis.
Councillor Swords said:
“The Government’s plan for Local Government Reorganisation would be truly disastrous for Harlow.
“We are rebuilding our town before people’s eyes. Cranes dominate our skyline, new homes are being built, neighbourhoods are being renewed, private investment is flowing in and pride is returning. We cannot allow that progress to be sacrificed to years of costly restructuring and bureaucracy.
“The Government is effectively asking Harlow to find tens of millions of pounds to help pay for abolishing its own council. The price for our town would be enormous: much-loved services forced to close, regeneration brought to a halt and the very people delivering Harlow’s transformation diverted into dismantling the organisation behind it.
“Every hour spent on structural reorganisation is an hour not spent delivering for Harlow. Every pound spent on transition is a pound unavailable for our town.
“And after Harlow has paid that enormous price, we would no longer have our own council run by councillors in Harlow. We would become part of a vast authority stretching from Great Chesterford to Chigwell, where the large majority of councillors would come from Epping and Uttlesford.
“Harlow has momentum. Harlow is delivering. We have spent years building the confidence, investment and ambition that is now transforming our town. We cannot allow Local Government Reorganisation to tear that down.
“Put Harlow first. Stop Local Government Reorganisation. Let us keep Building Harlow’s Future.”
The financial consequences are at the heart of Harlow Council’s case. The Government is proposing just £1 million for each new unitary authority – an amount Councillor Swords warns “bears no resemblance to the true cost of implementation” and would cover only a fraction of the unavoidable cost of abolishing existing councils and creating new ones.
His warning to Ministers could not be clearer:
“The Government is asking councils to finance their own abolition without providing anything like the resources necessary to do so.”
For Harlow, the letter warns the consequences would include an unsustainable deterioration in the Council’s financial position, the closure of local services and suspension of its regeneration programme.
The Council is also warning of a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the Government’s plans. At the same time as councils are being asked to build homes, regenerate town centres, drive economic growth and reform public services, Local Government Reorganisation would consume the same leadership, expertise, capacity and money needed to deliver those priorities. As the letters make clear, “there is no second leadership team waiting in reserve.”
Councillor Swords has written:
“Every hour spent on structural reorganisation is an hour not spent delivering homes. Every pound spent on transition is a pound unavailable for investment in communities.”
Harlow Council, alongside other councils, is already taking legal action to challenge the Government’s plans while making its case across Whitehall. Councillor Swords has written to senior Ministers and Baroness Casey, warning that Local Government Reorganisation also risks colliding with once-in-a-generation reform of adult social care.
Those letters warn that Government would be redesigning the organisations responsible for delivering adult social care before it has decided what adult social care itself should become – potentially spending billions creating new structures that could be obsolete before they even come into existence.
The Council’s case is therefore not simply about preserving Harlow Council. It is about protecting Harlow’s progress, its services, its investment and its ability to keep delivering for residents.
Read the full letters to the: