Bad for the economy
Proposals to reorganise local government in Norfolk and to create one or two mammoth, bureaucratic councils could not have come at a worse time. Norfolk – like the rest of Britain – faces a severe recession. There is no longer any certainty over councils’ income or their necessary expenditure in a period of severe economic downturn.
None of the financial assumptions made by the government’s Boundary Committee when they embarked upon their proposals for local government reorganisation take account of a severe economic recession.
On top of this Norfolk councils had almost £50m invested in Icelandic banks. It is not clear whether these funds will be returned.
The proposals for re-organisation would cost a minimum of £20m and possibly as much as £60m based on experience elsewhere.
The unitary proposals will involve the loss of over 500 local jobs and many more jobs are likely to be centralised into a new, large council headquarters. The proposals are likely to suck jobs away from rural areas across Norfolk and see them centralised in a new, massive, bureaucratic council headquarters. Pouring money into Norwich will bleed funding out of the rest of the county.
These proposals are bad for the local economy and bad for local economic regeneration.
