11-05-2025
Angela Rayner's council overhaul will cost taxpayer billions
Angela Rayner's plan to abolish scores of councils will cost taxpayers billions of pounds in pay-offs to high-ranking officials, ministers have been warned.
Ministers aim to get rid of more than 100 councils within the next four years to make local government more efficient.
But officials in Rayner's department are concerned there will be 'substantial' extra costs because of the generous structure of local government pension scheme, under which councils must pay long-serving officials hundreds of thousands of pounds each for being made redundant.
Lord Fuller, the Tory peer and former chair of the District Councils Network, said there would be 'multi-billion pound implications', although there is not thought to be a centrally- held estimate of the costs.
England has 21 county councils, with 164
