One council for Norfolk is best for residents and services, report says

• Having one council would save £36.2m per year and repay start-up costs within a year
• It would join up services and avoid disruption, risks and costs caused by splitting up county-wide services
• If there was more than one council, the authority covering the west of Norfolk could be financially unviable from the start

Replacing Norfolk's eight councils with one would save £36.2m per year and deliver the biggest benefits to residents, a new report says.

Having one council would cut costs, join up services for residents and ensure strong financial foundations, according to the draft options appraisal report from Norfolk County Council.

The Government wants to replace existing county and district councils in England with fewer, unitary councils - which deliver all services in their area. It has asked councils to submit options.

Norfolk County Council has studied data and evidence on the pros and cons of one, two or three unitary councils and asked the public what mattered to them about local councils and services. It is proposing that its preferred option is one unitary council, covering the whole area.

County council leader Councillor Kay Mason Billig said: "We have studied the data and listened to the public and that has led me to a clear conclusion.

"One council for Norfolk is the only sensible option, which is supported by facts and most importantly, by residents - it's the most cost effective, it protects and improves the key services people rely on and it keeps our county together."

Deputy leader and cabinet member for finance, Councillor Andrew Jamieson, said: "One council for Norfolk makes the most of your Council Tax in these hard pressed times, with more spent on services and less on bureaucracy.

"Having more than one council creates a real risk that at least one of them would be financially unviable from the start. We've seen elsewhere the real harm that is done to residents and services, when councils are underfunded and go bust. This report is a real warning that we must not sleepwalk into that."

Norfolk residents were asked to select their top priorities, from the Government's criteria for local government reorganisation:

• The top priority (67.2 per cent of respondents) was to ensure Council Taxpayers got value for money from efficient services.
• The second priority (53.3 per cent) was improving local services.
• The third priority (42.6 per cent) was ensuring that services are not unnecessarily fragmented/split up

The county council's report says that the key benefits of one council for Norfolk are:

• A single council would mean consistent services, delivered across the whole of Norfolk, with equal levels of Council Tax, service quality and services available, wherever you live
• It would save £36.2m per year, by cutting duplication, reducing the number of chief officers and councillors and having economies of scale when purchasing services. Start-up costs would be repaid in a year
• It avoids the risks and costs of splitting up complex, county-wide services like adult social services, children's services and highways - which would incur extra costs of between £20.4m and £33.6m per year, if there were two or three unitary councils
• It recognises the role of greater Norwich as an economic centre of activity for the whole county and highlights the importance of not creating an artificial boundary around it, which would stifle growth

The report's conclusion says: "We have an opportunity to create a new council for Norfolk which can:

• Be a powerful advocate for Norfolk - speaking up and influencing as one voice for local communities, creating more impact, both with any Norfolk/Suffolk mayor and with the Government, businesses and investors
• Be accountable - our residents would know that one council was responsible for all of the services, removing confusion. There would be one set of locally elected councillors, with one set of elections
• Be efficient - removing duplication and bureaucracy and joining up services to deliver better value for money
• Enable devolution - through a single, clear and concise set of strategic priorities for Norfolk and simplifying decision-making
• Avoid the use of untested models for delivering critical services to children, families, older people and some of the most vulnerable of our residents"

The council's strategic and corporate select committee will consider the report when it meets at 10am on Wednesday 18 June. The council's cabinet will then meet at 2pm on Monday 23 June to consider the report and the committee's comments, before selecting a preferred option.

Once a preferred option is selected, there will be further engagement. The preferred option will be developed into a detailed proposal, to be submitted to the Government by 26 September. Ministers will take the final decision on what council structure to adopt.

You can read the draft options appraisal report in the meeting details for 18 June 2025. 

Both the select committee and cabinet meetings will be available to view, live or afterwards, on YouTube.

Background

The report highlights the following:

• Set up costs (including redundancy, procurement and creation of shadow authorities to lead the transition work):
  • Creating one council for Norfolk would cost £33.7m, with set-up costs repaid within a year
  • Creating two councils would cost £43.2m to set up and take up to five years to pay back the costs
  • Creating three councils would cost £50.2m and would never repay these costs
• The costs of splitting current, county-wide services up (known as disaggregation - duplication in cost and loss of economies of scale):
  • Having one council would not create disaggregation costs
  • Having two new councils would create ongoing costs of £20.4m per year
  • Having three new councils would create ongoing costs of £33.6m per year
• Net annual benefits:
  • Having one council would deliver benefits of £36.2m per year, after one year
  • Having two councils would deliver benefits of £9m per year, after five years
  • Having three councils would have an annual additional cost of £11.9m per year
• Financial risks:
  • The report shows that, by 2040, having two or three unitaries would cost between £10m and £31m more, per year, than having one council
  • Having two or three unitaries (whether East and West, or East, West and Greater Norwich) would give the west authority "significant risks in terms of financial stability and resilience, creating an undue disadvantage in a large part of the county". It would be underfunded by £11.2m per year if there were two unitaries and underfunded by £21.1m per year if there were three
• Risks of splitting services between different unitary councils include:
  • An imbalance in the funding available to services, duplication in cost and a loss of economies of scale
  • A loss of the ability to shape the market - eg care providers - and to use specialist facilities around the county
  • Complexity around data sharing, looking after families or vulnerable people who travel easily across administrative borders
  • Cross-charging and competition between different unitaries
  • A disconnect with county-wide bodies, eg the NHS