North Norfolk council demands 'every penny' back from government over scrapped shake-up
The authority spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on plans that will now never be used
A Norfolk council will demand “every penny” back from the government after pouring hundreds of thousands of pounds into a doomed shake-up of local government.
Councillors at North Norfolk District Council (NNDC) voted unanimously for their leader to write to ministers seeking a full refund.
The Liberal Democrat-led authority had put £500,000 into a shared pot run by Norfolk County Council, which every council in the county paid into to cover the cost of merging into three new authorities.
It had also spent £38,000 on temporary staff drafted in to work on the plans.
The money came from a £750,000 reserve the council had set aside for the shake-up.
Now the plans have been scrapped, the council is trying to get its money back in two ways.
First, it expects a refund from the county council from whatever is left unspent in the county pot.
It will then ask the government to repay the rest, meaning the money already spent on work that will now never be used.
Under the plans, Norfolk County Council and the county’s seven district councils were to be abolished and replaced with three unitary authorities, Greater Norwich, West Norfolk and East Norfolk, from April 2028.
But on September 7, Angela Rayner, the local government secretary, announced that the Labour government was withdrawing its decisions for Norfolk and Suffolk, along with Essex and Hampshire, following new legal advice.
The council has also insisted Whitehall picks up the tab for any future attempt to redraw the county’s councils.
Elections to the existing district councils will go ahead as normal next May.
At a full council meeting on Wednesday, council leader Tim Adams said the authority would be seeking “every penny” back.
“We will be seeking money back from the government and we will be seeking for them to pay for any future local government reorganisation proposals,” he said.
“We want to continue our efforts to invest in the future of our district, in terms of the economy, in terms of the environment, in terms of the development of staff.
“We feel that is only fair considering the approach that has been taken.”
Fellow Lib Dem Connor Rouse added: “It’s good to know this council takes taxpayers’ money seriously, and the time of officers seriously, and that the government can’t just U-turn and flip-flop on every single issue in terms of LGR.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been approached for comment.