MP opposes plan to expand city's political boundary

Nottinghamshire's only Conservative MP Robert Jenrick has waded into the debate about council mergers, arguing that the expansion of Nottingham would be "deeply, deeply unpopular".

Nottingham City Council has proposed it join with two neighbouring district councils as part of government plans to streamline local government.

Jenrick, who represents Newark, told the BBC he understood the need to shake up local councils but opposed the city council's specific proposals.

"I think people can understand that we might need to amalgamate councils to create bigger scale and ultimately deliver better value for money for taxpayers," the former housing, communities and local government secretary said.

"But what I don't want to see is a large part of the county of Nottinghamshire sucked into the city."

The Labour government has asked councils to submit initial ideas for new unitary authorities, each with a population of 500,000 or more.

Labour local government minister Jim McMahon said that all of the 21 "two-tier" areas had responded with proposals before last Friday's deadline.

"We need to push forward together and deliver these changes, so communities can see the benefits of simpler structures and so councils can deliver better value for money public services," McMahon added.

The changes would spell the end of Nottinghamshire's existing county, district and borough councils – and likely mean that the city of Nottingham, which currently contains 328,000 people, would need to expand.

The Labour-run city council has suggested creating a new, larger authority that would join with two of either Rushcliffe, Broxtowe, or Gedling.

Jenrick said he backed another option, put forward by the Tory-run county council, that would see a single authority created for Nottinghamshire while the city's boundaries remained intact.

Jenrick, whose seat contains part of Rushcliffe borough, said: "If you live in somewhere like West Bridgford, or Bingham - in my constituency - you do not want to be sucked into the city of Nottingham with all of the mismanagement and waste that goes with that."

Labour city council leader Neghat Khan previously said: "Nottingham is a significantly under-bounded local authority, covering a population of 328,000 at the centre of a built-up area of well over 750,000 - and a wider county population of 1.17 million.

"We are responsible for delivering the services expected in a core city, but many of the people who work in the city, and use council services currently live in the suburbs, meaning they can't vote in city elections, and pay council tax elsewhere.

"We need to address that imbalance."

Jenrick said his stance had been informed by his time as communities secretary from 2019 to 2021.

He said: "I've done local government reorganisation in many other parts of the country and there is always a degree of pragmatism that goes with it, and you have to go with the grain of public opinion, and what local people actually want, and I do not think that people in the county want to be governed by the city.

"That kind of takeover of rural areas, of the suburbs, of small market towns by the city is deeply, deeply unpopular."

The Labour MP for Rushcliffe, James Naish, is yet to declare which option he favours.

He told the BBC: "There is a lot more discussion to take place but I will make sure that Rushcliffe's voice and its interests are heard loudly and clearly given the valuable role it plays in the local and regional economy, including working with Robert as a fellow Rushcliffe MP."

The Liberal Democrats in Broxtowe are calling for a pause to the proposals while a "national debate" on the future of local government takes place.

They said ministers' plans had "no philosophy behind them".

An East Midlands Green Party spokesperson described the shake-up as "uncosted, undemocratic and unnecessary".

"We're against this in its entirety. The only people that are going to win are consultants," they added.

A Reform UK spokesperson said: "We are opposed to local government reorganisation without the consent of local people.

"These plans were never in Labour's manifesto and have no democratic mandate."

Ministers have provided £7.6m of funding to help local authorities develop their reorganisation plans in the coming months.

The deadline for final proposals is in the autumn.

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