Britain's first 'super council'?

Three London councils revealed radical proposals to merge services to create what would effectively become Britain's first "super council". Westminster, Hammersmith and Fulham, and Kensington and Chelsea said combining services could create savings of between £50m and £100m a year. In a joint statement the councils said that services and posts, from chief executive and senior directors to street cleaners and social workers could be shared, but councillors and council leaders would remain autonomous. The leaders of the three councils, Colin Barrow from Westminster, Stephen Greenhalgh from Hammersmith and Fulham and Sir Merrick Cockell, from Kensington and Chelsea, said: "Ensuring we can provide a high standard of local services in today's tough economic climate means thinking differently about how we operate, concentrating on what's important to the people we serve and ensuring we continue to care for the most vulnerable in our communities." "To achieve this in the age of austerity we need to seriously examine new ways of working including sharing service provision with other local authorities...That is why we have met and agreed to progress to plans to share every council service between our three councils. They added: "This may include merging services to reduce duplication and drive out needless cost." The proposed merger could make a new authority bigger than Glasgow or Leeds and the leaders said that two of the three councils, Westminster and Hammersmith and Fulham were already working to merge their children's services department to create savings of £2.5m a year for each authority. "In the coming weeks we will set up a series of working groups to develop and study options for three main areas: environmental services, family services and corporate services," they said. "Our chief executives will report in February next year with recommendations for action before we then consider the next steps, while our staff and our partners will be fully consulted at every stage, with public engagement when firm plans emerge." They added: "Our plans may be the first of their kind, but sharing of services in this way can no longer be viewed as a radical concept. It will soon become the norm for local authorities looking for innovative ways to keep costs down while delivering high quality front line services."