Are larger Local authorities better? — Mike Hedges AM
Alun Davies AM again asserts that we need larger local authorities. I suggest that anyone else who believes mergers to larger organisations is beneficial looks at Betsi Cawalladr health board, Natural resources Wales and the Welsh ambulance service.
We also know that the only local authority to fail financially, Northamptonshire, is substantially larger than any Welsh local authority either existing or proposed.
Does size produce better services and lower council tax because of the suggested efficiency of scale?
The current size of local authorities in Wales are shown below.
Rank — District — Population
- Cardiff — 361,500
2 Swansea — 244,500
3 Rhondda Cynon Taf — 238,300
4 Carmarthenshire — 185,600
5 Caerphilly — 180,500
6 Flintshire — 154,400
7 Newport — 149,100
8 Bridgend — 143,200
9 Neath Port Talbot — 141,600
10 Wrexham — 136,700
11 Powys — 132,200
12 Vale of Glamorgan — 128,500
13 Pembrokeshire — 124,000
14 Gwynedd — 123,600
15 Conwy — 116,500
16Denbighshire — 94,800
17 Monmouthshire — 92,800
18 Torfaen — 92,100
19 Ceredigion — 74,100
20 Isle of Anglesey — 69,700
21 Blaenau Gwent — 69,600
22 Merthyr Tydfil — 59,800
England and Scotland have several unitary authorities larger than Cardiff but Scotland has 5 smaller than Merthyr (Inverclyde, Clackmanshire, Western Isles, Orkney, and Shetland) and England one (Rutland).
If larger authorities were more efficient and effective then two things would happen: council tax would be lower and performance would be better. The council tax should show that the larger authorities, and Powys which has been deemed not to need to be merged, charging the lowest amount. Using Welsh Government data on 2018/19 County and County Borough Council tax rates.
District — Band D Council Tax — Relative size
Pembrokeshire — 994 — 13
Newport — 1,057 — 7
Caerphilly — 1,058 — 5
Wrexham — 1093 — 10
Isle of Anglesey — 1140 — 20
Cardiff — 1155 — 1
Conwy — 1168 — 15
Flintshire — 1178 — 6
Vale of Glamorgan — 1,187 — 12
Powys — 1189 — 11
Carmarthenshire — 1,197 — 4
Ceredigion — 1226 — 19
Torfaen — 1,242 — 18
Monmouthshire — 1,242 — 17
Denbighshire — 1248 — 16
Swansea — 1269 — 2
Gwynedd — 1301 — 14
Bridgend — 1396 — 8
Rhondda Cynon — 1,406 — 3
Neath Port Talbot — 1,497 — 9
Merthyr Tydfil — 1500 — 21
Blaenau Gwent — 1571 — 22
Whilst the two smallest authorities are in the bottom two places regarding council tax, medium-sized authorities appear to perform better than either large or small authorities when it comes to the cost of council tax to the resident.
Does council performance show that the larger authorities by population perform best? According to the Western Mail “ the quality of services delivered by local authorities in Wales is not determined by the size of the council.”
The Western Mail figures are based on 28 indicators across the range of local government, including education, social care, housing, environment and transport, planning and regulatory services, leisure and culture and corporate health.
With four points on offer for councils that performed in the top quartile of each indicator, a maximum score of 112 was possible. Depending on their performance, councils scored between one and four points in each indicator.
This uses figures published in 2015/16 and I will update these figures when I can access more recent figures.
Council — Score — Relative size
Vale of Glamorgan — 86 — 12
Denbighshire — 85 — 16
Carmarthenshire — 79 — 4
Pembrokeshire — 77 — 13
Rhondda Cynon Taf — 77 — 3
Merthyr Tydfil — 76 — 22
Wrexham — 76 — 10
Neath Port Talbot — 73 — 9
Gwynedd — 72 — 14
Flintshire — 71 — 6
Caerphilly — 70 — 5
Conwy — 68 — 15
Isle of Anglesey — 68 — 29
Blaenau Gwent — 67 — 21
Bridgend — 67 — 8
Monmouthshire — 66 — 17
Newport — 66 — 7
Torfaen — 66 — 18
Cardiff — 64 — 1
Ceredigion — 61 — 19
Powys — 61 — 11
Swansea — 59 — 2
From this, it is not possible to conclude that larger councils and Powys perform better with medium sized authorities taking three of the top four places.
In Scotland, the variation in council tax is much less than Wales but the lowest council tax is the Western Islands and Shetland and the largest Council, Glasgow, has the largest band D council tax.
I didn’t find it possible to get the same data for Scotland as is available for Wales on relative performance.
I look forward to reading an explanation, rather than an assertion, on how larger councils perform better and an explanation of the advantages of larger councils.
Mike Hedges is the Assembly Member for Swansea East.