Bucket-loads of political capital and cash will be used to reconfigure English councils’ two-tier set-up, but the benefits could be huge.
Across England a quiet rebellion is brewing. In Rutland, locals have started a campaign to save the tiny county from abolition. Villagers in High Peak, rural Derbyshire, worry they could be bundled in with Andy Burnham’s Greater Manchester. Nottingham is expanding, Medway wants to become a city, and Surrey will have a mayor.
Flick through your local newspaper (if one still exists), or fight past the online pop-ups and chances are there will be a story about Labour’s plans for the biggest shake-up of local government since the 1970s.
