This morning the Government confirmed the abolition of Surrey County Council and the district and borough councils in Surrey, including Tandridge and Reigate and Banstead.
They will be replaced by two unitary councils – East Surrey Council and West Surrey Council. It is the Government’s ambition for the new councils to be in place by 1 April 2027. We also received confirmation that next May’s council elections will go ahead.
Throughout this process, the shadow of other councils’ debt has been my main concern. When I wrote to the then Secretary of State for Local Government in May, I made clear that East Surrey residents should not pick up the bill for towns they don’t live in, left by councillors they did not elect. Council Tax paid in East Surrey should be spent on delivering services for local people, not paying off someone else’s debt.
I was told by Ministers this morning that the Government will write off some of Woking’s debt but not all of it: the council will still have another £1.5 billion of debt on its books. This is on top of the debt held by other Surrey councils. I will be continuing to press Ministers to make sure any debt burden incurred elsewhere in the county is not placed on the residents of East Surrey.
I hope that the abolition of the existing councils is taken as an opportunity to provide a stronger form of local government that will be more efficient, simplifying the delivery of services and make it easier for residents.
Further details will be published in the draft Structural Change Order (SCO) which I am expecting to be published shortly.
