Following the Government’s decision to place Suffolk on its Devolution Priority Programme (DPP), Suffolk County Council is to propose a budget of £1.9 million to ensure it has the right capacity, expertise, and resources required to deliver devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR).
The budget would be made available from a council-wide underspend in 2024/25. This would be used only as required.
The council’s Cabinet will consider the report at a meeting on 17 June 2025.
Councillor Richard Rout, Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for devolution, local government reform and NSIPs, said:
“Modernising Suffolk’s 50-year-old council structure is a significant piece of work which will require a large investment of time and money to achieve the even larger savings and improvements that are on offer.
“From cutting costs and keeping council tax as low as possible, to improving services and giving a stronger voice for local communities – there is much to be gained.
“We’re very clear that a new single local council is the smartest, simplest, and best option for the whole of Suffolk which will deliver the biggest savings and most sustainable service improvements. Any alternatives will have to work hard to justify the risks of breaking up critical services like social care, creating new council boundaries and smaller population sizes.
“Early figures suggest that establishing a single new local council could ultimately cost in the region of £19 million but that this could be repaid in short order through the savings the new model could deliver. On the other hand, the cost of breaking Suffolk into two or three would cost many millions of pounds more and, in the case of three new councils, that investment would never be repaid as there would be no savings to be found.
“We recognise our cabinet paper proposes a substantial level of investment but if the government chooses to break Suffolk up, the costs will run much higher.
“If we’re going to create a truly sustainable and effective council structure for Suffolk, then one new council is not just the only viable option, but also the best one.”
The proposed budget would build upon the £290,000 one-off capacity funding for devolution and LGR announced by the Government last week. It enables the county council to proactively prepare over the long term and allow for a more dynamic and flexible use of resources. Suffolk County Council has already redeployed existing resources where possible, however, as a lean organisation, such opportunities are limited and as such additional funding is required.
The £1.9 million budget is based on:
- Learning and modelling from the experience of others that have implemented LGR transition and established a Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA).
- Existing spend on programme and preparatory work to implement LGR and devolution by creating an MCCA.
- Learning from areas that have most recently undertaken LGR highlighting that the cost of full transition is likely to run to be much higher. This is underwritten by the savings and efficiencies embedded in the single unitary local government.
Through its membership of the Devolution Priority Programme (DPP), Suffolk County Council is committed to pursuing LGR and must submit full business case proposals for Ministerial decision by 26 September 2025.
You can read the Cabinet paper on our committee meeting database
