Hampshire County Council proposes combined authority

Hampshire County Council has written to all 11 of its district council leaders proposing one combined authority across the whole of the region.

Quick to quash recent reports, Roy Perry, council leader, said that the council does not wish to re-open talks on a Mayoral Combined Authority for the Solent area, but strongly believes that ‘there is scope for enhancing the original Combined Authority bid to cover more co-operation between all tiers of local government, on housing delivery and with the health authorities, particularly for social care’.

Perry said: “I have spoken with Sajid Javid, the Secretary of State, and he was quite clear that he would not wish to impose anything that would not have Hampshire County Council’s agreement. He also knows our concern that if a unitary Solent City were to be established, that could, and almost certainly would, lead to the division of Hampshire.

“Disrupting a county like Hampshire would be a very expensive and time consuming exercise. It would also devastate some of the best local government services in the country. I am sure we can make significant economies with a combined authority (whilst still keeping local councils) by more shared service delivery between the county and districts.”