Why Warwickshire councils may merge in 2025

It's almost January - a month of fresh starts and attempts to slim down.

In that spirit, councillors are being asked to trim the fat this year and no, it doesn't involve going to the gym.

The Labour government has announced the biggest shake-up of local authorities in 50 years - and six councils in Warwickshire could be cut.

It gets geeky, very quickly, so bear with me.

In Warwickshire, there are currently two tiers of local government - five smaller district councils covering North Warwickshire, Rugby, Warwick, Stratford-on-Avon and Nuneaton and Bedworth, and one large county-wide authority.

The government led by Prime Minister Keir Starmer wants district and county councils to merge into bigger strategic authorities over wider areas, to save money and streamline services.

The tricky part is getting councils run by different political parties to join forces.

Ministers are asking councils to submit merger proposals in January. Talk about January blues.

So what options are being considered in Warwickshire?

It's early days yet, but Warwickshire council leaders met for initial talks before Christmas.

The Conservative leader of Warwickshire County Council, Izzi Seccombe, put forward a plan to create one unitary authority.

Headed by a leader, the new council would cover the county's current borders and would take on all services run by the current six local authorities across two levels.

Seccombe is planning to submit the proposal by 10 January.

If Warwickshire was selected to become a strategic authority in the first wave, the county's elections in May 2025 would be delayed.

But the proposal didn't go down well at the meeting, with most council leaders opposing it.

Chris Watkins, the Labour leader of Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, said he wanted to explore other possibilities.

"I won't be getting pushed into it by county," he said, adding he would write to the government to oppose its proposal.

He said his council could join up with Coventry's and Rugby's, dividing Warwickshire between north and south.

"But we don't know if they're interested," Watkins said.

"Dropping this on us before Christmas is not the best timing."

If there's no agrement among council leaders, the government could step in.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayer said the government would pass a law to give ministers the power to "knock heads together" in areas where there was no agreement on mergers.

Seccombe acknowledged there was "going to be opposition", adding: "Turkeys don't vote for Christmas, do they?"

But Warwickshire has already set out its case to create a single authority for the county.

Seccombe said the government would be "looking at Warwickshire as a relatively easy-to-do".

There's something else Warwickshire could explore too.

It could request to join the West Midlands Combined Authority, which is led by a regional mayor, with powers over transport, skills and housing.

Conservative-controlled Warwickshire County Council did consider becoming a full member of the combined authority in 2023, but the plans were ditched after Labour politicians kicked off.

I interviewed Labour West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker before Christmas, and I asked him whether he could rule out a Warwickshire-wide council joining the combined authority.

He said: "I think the Warwickshire issue was dealt with at that time and is now in another place.

"So I do not envisage the boundaries of this combined authority being extended."

That sounds like a no, as it stands, meaning Warwickshire will have go its own way, for the time being.

"These are big strategic questions about how people and areas are governed," said Chris Smith, the founder of the Centre for the New Midlands think tank.

"You can't make these decisions overnight."

He said over Christmas, council leaders would have been thinking hard about who they align with.

It may be a new year, but old habits - especially political tribalism - are difficult to shake off.