Reported Council Collaboration Savings Contested By Opposition Councillors

Published on: 20 Jan, 2025
Updated on: 20 Jan, 2025

Report on councils’ partnership benefits

By Martin Giles

Guildford & Waverley Councils say that a report written by Local Partnerships, a consultancy that is part-owned by the Local Government Association (LGA), shows the Guildford and Waverley partnership has produced significant savings.

But the findings are hotly disputed by the Conservative opposition groups at each council with the Conservative leader at Waverley claiming: “This ‘collaboration’ was always a political exercise by the Lib Dem leadership of these two borough councils.” And all the opposition commentators felt that the collaboration has become largely irrelevant because of the English Devolution White Paper.

The collaboration between Guildford and Waverley Borough Councils began in 2021. A single chief executive was appointed in 2021, followed by the creation of a joint leadership team (JLT) in 2022. The partnership was designed to address growing financial pressures on local government by sharing senior leadership and management functions thereby saving money.

The report, dated November 21 but only published on Friday (January 17), finds in its “Analysis of collaboration benefits” that the joint management approach introduced in 2022, has generated savings of £603,000. The analysis compared the actual cost of the JLT against that of the previous independent management structures, allowing for cost increases.

It says that the savings show the partnership, even including one-off costs, has delivered more financial value than it cost. Savings are ongoing and costs are one-off, so savings will continue to grow, with potential for even greater savings from deeper collaboration in the future.

Other findings were:

despite increases in expenditure due to inflation, the overall cost base of both councils was lower at the end of 2023/24 than it would have been if no changes had taken place since 2020/21. The savings are particularly apparent in staffing, where the increase in employee costs has been among the lowest when benchmarked against other local authorities.
there was no evidence of a fall in service performance and key performance indicators remain on track, showing that savings have not impacted the quality of our services. This is positive for future collaborative work, with the report recommending that the two councils take a more strategic approach to find new areas where service sharing could deliver even greater financial benefits.

But the report was written before the English Devolution White Paper was published and both borough councils are unlikely to exist in two years’ time.

See articles on proposed reorganisation of local government here.

Cllr Julia McShane

Nevertheless, Julia McShane, leader of Guildford Borough Council, remained upbeat saying: “This report highlights the significant financial savings and operational improvements already achieved through our collaboration with Waverley Borough Council.

“The creation of the Joint Leadership Team in 2022 has proven to be a wise investment, and we are excited about the potential to build on these results to drive further savings. As we continue to work together, our priority is to ensure that the services we provide to residents remain efficient and of the highest quality.

“We have seen strong results so far, and must now make an important decision about whether we build on this momentum and deepen our collaboration. We are committed to continuing this journey, but only in ways that are strategically sound and backed by robust business cases that demonstrate clear benefits.”

Cllr Paul Follows

And Paul Follows, leader of Waverley Borough Council, agreed: “The findings of this report confirm the value of collaboration between our councils. Our joint working has allowed us to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and maintain the standards of our services.

“With this strong foundation, we are in a fantastic position to explore further opportunities for collaboration that will generate additional savings and benefits for both councils and the communities we serve.

“It’s great to have independent verification that the decisions we have made are delivering benefits for taxpayers and residents. Being able to demonstrate a strong and successful partnership will also enable Guildford and Waverley to make very powerful case for us to have the central role in any future unitary council covering our area.”

Both councils are now said to be considering a range of options that could see further services shared across both organisations and according to GBC’s statement: “These will be carefully evaluated through business case work to make sure they deliver more benefits than costs.”

Cllr Philip Brooker

Asked if he agreed with the findings of the report, the leader of the Conservative group at GBC Philip Brooker said: “It speaks volumes for the Lib Dem administration that such a sensitive report was released to the press before being released to councillors or opposition leaders, minimising the ability of elected members to give it meticulous scrutiny.

“The report largely concentrates on self-evident cost savings through reduced staff numbers but is very light on the consequences of the increased workload. The reports states that ‘…whether [staff performance] has come at a wider cost to one or both councils is harder to answer’ and concludes ‘Ultimately, it is impossible to state with certainty that the overall position of GBC and WBC is better or worse as a result of the collaboration’, rendering the report meaningless.

“The Lib Dem administrations have failed to increase efficiency by merging. Instead, we have two councils that are both failing residents due to their systemic incompetence. Thankfully, this is now largely irrelevant as we move towards a unitary structure across Surrey.”

Cllr Joss Bigmore

Joss Bigmore R4GV, who when his party was in an uneasy partnership with the Lib Dems was in favour of the collaboration, criticised the way it has been managed: “It’s no surprise to me that the report talks positively about the benefits of the collaboration between GBC and WBC, with significant duplication across both councils, there were clear efficiencies to exploit, releasing savings to invest into services.

“My regret is that the project has stalled since the election in 2023, with more political vision and bravery from the LDs far more could have been achieved in the period since, their timidity has resulted in significant managerial challenge as teams have not been merged effectively.

“The local government reorganisation agenda will now take over, the work completed will not be wasted, but there will be no further progress on this bilateral relationship when uniterisation is the direction of travel.”

Cllr Jane Austin

Jane Austin, leader of the opposition at Waverley Borough Council agreed that the impending reorganisation made the partnership largely irrelevant. She said: “A much-hyped report but providing incredibly disappointing financials – only £101,000 per year saving over the last three years for each council. This is very poor and equates to less than one per cent of council tax. Surely these marginal cost savings could have been sourced in-house at each council without this hugely disruptive restructuring.”

“We find it astounding that the report does not split out the costs and savings of the collaboration to each council.”

“This report is now largely irrelevant given the recent announcement by Government that the unitary authority structure is to be implemented across Surrey. Considering potential further collaboration financial benefits of two council’s which soon won’t exist is a supreme waste of resource and time.”

“This ‘collaboration’ was always a political exercise by the Lib Dem leadership of these two borough Councils. Time now to focus on real efficiencies which will come from unitary restructuring for our residents please.”

Guildford Labour and the Guildford Greenbelt Group were also invited to comment.