Friday brief: Northants councils frozen out once again in devolution deals
A news round up on this hot week
By Nadia Lincoln, local democracy reporter
Both Northamptonshire councils have once again been frozen out from creating a ‘South Midlands’ mayoral authority by some of their neighbours, meaning the county risks becoming isolated in a devolution desert.
The government’s plans to devolve further powers to areas under the control of a regional mayor were announced at the end of last year, leaving many authorities scrambling to submit proposals with neighbouring councils and move onto a national fast-track devolution programme.
West and North Northamptonshire Councils (WNC and NNC) lost out earlier this yea when their neighbours disagreed about what area the new strategic mayoral authority should cover and again this week they were overlooked by their neighbours.
Both WNC and NNC have said the South Midlands deal is still the only option for devolution that meets all the government’s criteria that will work for the area.
But on Wednesday Milton Keynes Council passed a motion agreeing to look towards the BLMK [Bedford, Luton, Milton Keynes] deal, leaving out Northants. The county’s other neighbours of Leicester and Rutland are hoping to join forces and Cambridgeshire already has a mayoral deal. Lincolnshire is also out of the running for Northants.
Milton Keynes Leader Pete Marland said:
“We all agree that devolution is a huge opportunity to this city and region, but the real question before us is what that region should be.
“I wholeheartedly believe that the BLMK model is the right model for this city. We should not go into a deal with Northamptonshire.
“That is not because we don’t like Northamptonshire, it is because it’s the wrong thing for Milton Keynes to do at this present time. No deal is better than a bad deal.”
Following the same lead, Luton Borough Council has also confirmed that it will not be exploring any devolution options that include the Northamptonshire councils. The leader, Hazel Simmons, previously said that the BLMK area represents the “best chance” of securing a successful devolution result.
However, as was the case at the start of the year, some councils in the proposed SMA footprint have not ruled out working with Northamptonshire completely.
Cllr Adam Zerny, leader of Central Bedfordshire Council, said:
“We recognise the close working relationship and commonality we have with Bedford, Milton Keynes and Luton, but we also acknowledge that, historically, we have also worked with West Northants and North Northants councils.
“Furthermore, we have strong working relationships with adjacent local authorities such as Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.
“We are open to working with all interested local authorities to explore options. I remain adamant we will not support any devolution deal unless it brings clear benefits to the residents of Central Bedfordshire.”
Bedford Borough Council has also kept its cards close to its chest. The authority has not stated a preference for a particular deal.
A response from their spokesperson said:
“Our focus will always be on ensuring that any future arrangements align with the best interests of people in Bedford Borough.
“While Milton Keynes has passed a motion on this issue, no vote has taken place here.”
“I have always believed in the strength of the South Midlands area”.
Cllr Martin Griffiths, Leader of North Northamptonshire Council, said that a devolution deal has the ability to deliver “enormous economic benefits to our area for decades to come”.
He said it was “disappointing” that Milton Keynes Council has passed their motion, but that both Northamptonshire Councils believe the South Midlands is still the “only option for devolution”.
He added:
“Additionally, the move towards a Combined Authority is consistent with our BIG50 vision and our ambition to be an exemplary council in our own right.
“Progressing devolution on the South Midlands geography would create the seventh largest Mayoral Strategic Authority in terms of economic output, giving the region a strong voice at the Council of the Nations and Regions whilst positioning us well to capitalise on both public and private investment.
“I have always believed in the strength of the South Midlands area as I was a former board member of SEMLEP and we worked successfully together in the past, with the six authorities having a strong history of driving economic growth.
“Building on this will only bring more benefits to all of our communities through a devolution deal that could attract millions of pounds of additional investment.”
Cllr Mark Arnull, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council, said he had written to other leaders in the South Midlands urging them not to make any decisions until they can discuss the deal together.
“The South Midlands is still the only option for devolution that meets all the government’s criteria and enjoys the unanimous support of the South Midlands Business Board, whose membership includes some very prominent businesses in their areas,” he said.
“Insistence on a BLMK approach will likely mean we all miss out on any further devolution opportunities the Government progresses. Just last week £15.6bn of transport investment for devolution areas was announced with much of this, and wider investment such as Local Growth Funds, directed to the largest Strategic Authorities.”
The government wants final bids in by November.
News in brief
Family tributes were paid this week to mother and artist Isobella Knight, who was murdered.
The body of the 32 year old was found at a property in Burton Latimer last Friday (June 13). Her husband Paul Knight, 35, has been charged with her murder and after appearing at court this week was remanded in custody. He will next go before Northampton Crown Court on September 2.
Isobella’s father Tim said this week:
“When I think of her, it’s as a mum. She was wonderful, she just shone.I loved having them all here to visit, and seeing her girls grow.
“She encouraged her children to find their talents, and now as her family we will keep her memory alive for them. We will stand side by side and say to them ‘this is your mum, and she was brilliant and wonderful and she loved you so much’, just the way I have always loved her.”
A new police base could soon be coming to Kettering, but the search for a suitable site in Corby continues.
Northamptonshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Danielle Stone has announced her office is looking to purchase a Kettering building to convert it into a new policing hub and front desk for the town.
The former Kettering town centre station, located on London Road, closed in 2017. It was sold in 2024 for £1.1m, of which the PFCC received £722,781 due to the split ownership with North Northants Council (NNC).
The Weekley Wood Justice Centre, which is shared by police officers from Corby and Kettering, is not open to the public. A front desk is currently open in the Bowling Green Road council offices between 10am to 4pm.
A spokesperson has said that no further information on the location of the new site can be given as they are still in legal negotiations with the owners.
However the hunt for a police base in Corby continues. Since police officers moved out of their former station in Elizabeth Street, anyone wanting to talk to neighbourhood officers has to go to a desk on the fourth floor of the Corby Cube.
At a Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting on Thursday, which is tasked with scrutinising the work of the Commissioner, panel member and NNC deputy leader Eddie McDonald asked if Corby was any closer to getting a new station.
Commissioner Stone said she envisages the base would provide a new front desk for people to speak directly to officers, space for neighbourhood policing teams and response units all in the same building. Officers responding to 999 calls in Corby currently dispatch from the Northern Accommodation Building (NAB) on the outskirts of Kettering.
The Labour PFCC continued:
“We cannot find an appropriate building that will house those three functions. I’ve had people in my estates team spending hours and hours looking online, picking up the phone, talking to people in Corby, and we haven’t come up with any satisfactory solution.
“But it’s an urgent matter. The police have said if I can’t find a building for them, they will try and put response into Corby anyway and they will use different locations. So they would start their shift over at the NAB and then they’d be deployed so they are in Corby.
“We are continuing to look.”
Report by Nadia Lincoln
Two men have been charged in connection with the shooting of a 17-year-old boy in Corby in April.
Robert Quittenton, aged 75, and Sam Stimpson, aged 37, both of Brambleside Court, Kettering, have both been charged with assisting an offender in relation to the incident which took place in Hazel Wood, near Westcott Way, on April 11.
Quittenton and Stimpson will appear at Northampton Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, June 26.
A 20-year-old man charged with attempted murder in connection with the incident appeared at Northampton Magistrates’ Court on May 17 where he was remanded into custody ahead of his next appearance at Northampton Crown court on June 30.
Reform’s Doge-style audit of Northants’ two unitary councils are moving ahead.
The party took control of both councils in May and they will be among the first to receive the Doge treatment from the group of IT and finance people Nigel’s Farage’s party has appointed to do the examination.
West Northants will be first and the chief executive Anna Earnshaw, who has been in the chief officer role since day one of the council in 2021, says now is the right time to do the scrutiny.
She told the local democracy reporting service this week:
“I think the key here is it’s in all of our benefit to do it in a timely way because we start our budget planning for next year in the next week or so because it’s a more and more challenging environment.
“From all of our point of view there’s no better time than now to do this piece of work because actually if we do it and if we find further efficiencies from accessing expertise, that we might not have otherwise had access to, then that can only be beneficial in that [budget setting] process.”
The authority has set a balanced budget each year since its inception in 2021 and undertakes an efficiency review to find its own savings. According to papers going to the WNC cabinet next week, the 2024/25 budget finished with a small £0.4m underspend, after combatting the combined £18m deficit across children’s and adult social care services.
No indication has been given on how much the DOGE project is expected to save for the authority, but leader Mark Arnull said that it would be “diverted back and be used for the benefit of the residents”. However savings are a regular feature of local council processes as government funding has not matched pace with need.
Nigel Farage was guest of honour at the first executive meeting of NNC this week, receiving a heroes welcome with continually clapping from the senior councillors and he was also presented with a box of Northants goodies.
Farage told the LDRS the DOGE reviews in the county could find “fewer egregious cases of spending” due to the age of the authorities.
“We’re certainly going to find savings in the old counties where one council has run it for years,” he said. “Things in this county are a bit different. They started again with a blank sheet of paper.
“I think we’ll find less bad stuff than we’ll find elsewhere, but we’ll still find efficiencies, I believe.”
That regional mayor thing...nothing to do with other authorities wisely not wanting to take 2 lame ducks who can't make the books balance?
The idea that anyone with no experience whatsoever of local authority finance that could possibly make a difference "Is pie in the sky". Further more, that the PFCC could purchase another building and sell at loss is another joke dumped on the residents of Northamptonshire.