Local Government Reorganisation might sound like one of those dry subjects that only councillors and council officers get excited about, but the decisions being taken now could have consequences for North West Leicestershire for decades to come.
The Government has decided to press ahead with a significant expansion of Leicester City’s boundaries as part of the reorganisation of local government across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. While North West Leicestershire itself will remain outside the expanded city, it would be a serious mistake to assume that means we will be unaffected.
My concern has always been about what is left behind.
Expanding Leicester means moving communities, businesses, assets and valuable sources of business-rate income from the county into the city. Yet many of the biggest and most expensive responsibilities facing the remaining county area will still exist. Adult social care will still need to be provided. Children’s services will still need to be funded. Roads will still need maintaining, buses supported and countless other essential services delivered.
The financial pressures do not simply disappear because somebody in Whitehall has drawn a new line on a map.
That matters because there is no magic pot of money in local government. If the new authority covering the remaining areas of Leicestershire and Rutland has a weaker financial base, something eventually has to give. Either additional income has to be found, spending has to be reduced or residents have to be charged more for services.
That is where people in North West Leicestershire could find themselves paying the price for a city expansion they neither asked for nor supported.
Take something as straightforward as our garden-waste collections. North West Leicestershire residents currently receive that service without paying a separate annual subscription. Nobody can say today with certainty what the future authority will decide, but if finances become increasingly squeezed, services such as this will inevitably come under scrutiny. A £45 or £50 annual garden-waste charge might not sound enormous to those making decisions in Whitehall, but to families already facing increased household costs it is another bill landing on the doormat.
And that is just one example.
There is another issue which I believe deserves much greater attention: what happens to the money North West Leicestershire has already built up?
North West Leicestershire District Council has reserves accumulated over many years, including General Fund reserves and resources set aside for investment such as new council housing. These resources did not simply appear from nowhere. They have been built up through decisions made locally, from income generated locally and ultimately on behalf of the communities our council exists to serve.
With the abolition of the existing councils approaching, there is a genuine question about whether all those resources can realistically be invested in North West Leicestershire before the current authority disappears. If they cannot, residents deserve to know what happens next.
I do not want to see money accumulated in North West Leicestershire simply disappearing into one enormous county-wide pot and subsequently being spent elsewhere. The same applies to the assets that our communities have built up over generations. There should be a very simple principle throughout this process: money and assets accumulated for North West Leicestershire should continue to benefit the people of North West Leicestershire.
There is also the question of development. If the remaining authority finds itself increasingly dependent upon North West Leicestershire for business rates, economic growth and developable land, what pressure will that place on our towns and villages in the years ahead?
We are already fighting proposals for enormous housing developments without the roads, schools, GP capacity and other infrastructure needed to support them. I do not want our area becoming the cash cow or development dumping ground for a new authority trying to balance its books.
These are serious questions, and they deserve serious answers.
That is why I recently wrote an open letter to our Member of Parliament asking her to publicly support the overwhelming wishes of the people she represents and oppose the Government’s plans for Leicester’s boundary expansion.
At the time of writing, I have received no reply.
I hope that changes, because this issue should be bigger than party politics. Party loyalty matters, but so does the responsibility every elected representative has to stand up for the communities we were elected to serve.
That applies to me as a Conservative just as much as it applies to politicians from any other party. There will inevitably be occasions when the interests of the community we represent require us to make our case strongly to colleagues within our own party or to those in Government. That isn't disloyalty; it is part of the responsibility that comes with elected office.
Our Member of Parliament has an opportunity to make the strength of feeling in North West Leicestershire clear to her Government. I sincerely hope she takes it.
Because there will be plenty of political careers between now and the point at which these new councils themselves are eventually replaced or reorganised again. MPs will change, councillors will change and governments will change. But the decisions being taken today could determine how our communities are governed and funded for a generation.
We cannot look back in five or ten years, when residents are potentially paying more for services, when local assets have been transferred elsewhere or when North West Leicestershire is being asked to shoulder an ever-greater proportion of development, and claim that nobody saw the risks coming.
We can see those risks now. That is precisely why we have a responsibility to speak up now.
This is not simply about where Leicester ends and Leicestershire begins. It is about who pays, who decides, where our money goes and whether communities like ours retain a meaningful voice over their own future.
Whatever our political differences, protecting North West Leicestershire and the interests of the people who live here should be something every one of our elected representatives can get behind.
