Concerns Nottinghamshire residents will pay more council tax if council shake-up not done properly

Plans for the shifting and merging of Nottinghamshire’s council boundaries have now ramped up ahead of the government’s November deadline.

Back in December 2024 the Labour Government announced plans to reorganise areas made up of two-tier local authorities – including Nottinghamshire – where responsibilities are currently split between county and district councils.

The English Devolution White Paper wants existing council boundaries redrawn to create new, larger, single-tier, unitary authorities by 2027/28.

Currently, there are two core options for the shake-up being primarily consulted on that would see some form of a Nottingham City boundary expansion into either Broxtowe and Gedling or Broxtowe and Rushcliffe, with the other unitary formed of the remaining areas in both options.

Conservative Nottinghamshire County Councillor and Gedling Borough Councillor, Sam Smith told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “With local government reorganisation, because the debt in Nottingham City Council is so big… if you move parts of the county into the city [boundary] as whole districts, those bits going in will pay more council tax.”

Residents in a Band D property in Nottingham City currently pay £2,656.19 in council tax, with those living in a Band D home in a non-parish area of Gedling pay £2,482.35 – a seven per cent difference.

County Councillor Bruce Laughton (Con) told the LDRS: “Most people that pay council tax pay on a direct debit. If I was to send them a bill every month through the post they would actually realise what a major impact it is on their finances, and that’s what lulls them into a false sense of security.

“If you’re a band H you’re paying [around] £5,000 a year in council tax – that is a significant impact.”

In the 2024/25 financial year, the then Conservative-led Nottinghamshire County Council spent just under a third of its £1.2 billion budget on adult social care, with Coun Smith saying: “And the cost of those packages go up… the only way to pay for it is put council tax up.”

County Councillor Bruce Laughton (Con) told the LDRS Gedling Borough Council, Newark and Sherwood District Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council effectively “subsidise” adult social care and children’s services for other county areas.

He said in a conference on August 5, that more than 70 per cent of the county council ’s social care demand from adult and young people comes from Ashfield, Mansfield and parts of Bassetlaw.

Coun Smith continued: “If you lose Rushcliffe, Rushcliffe Borough Council residents pay more council tax as a whole – they pay less council tax as individuals.

“Moving those people paying those bills into the city, you’ve still got the same service demand. Adult social care demand in Rushcliffe is completely stark to Ashfield and massively lower.

“So a [city boundary expansion] isn’t going to absorb any cost for adult social care, they’re just going to absorb the tax base, whereas the county areas are left with the demand.”

Coun Smith said council tax increases for all residents “is not a fear, it is fact” if council re-shaping plans are not considered properly.

He added: “If [reorganisation] is done correctly, it will save money. At the moment we pay for eight or nine [council] chief executives, eight or nine directors for bins and planning – all of that back room stuff can be scrapped.

“If you do [reorganisation] correctly, within the right demographics, like Rushcliffe, Gedling and Newark and Sherwood, where service demand is reflective in all those areas and tax income is reflective, if you do that right you will save money.”

Coun Laughton said a “hybrid proposal” is needed for reorganisation plans that allows Nottingham City to grow but leaves other areas with correct funding.

In a conference by six Conservative County Councillors, they called for more reorganisation options to be explored rather than just the two in the public engagement.

So far, Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, Gedling and Bassetlaw leaders have backed the re-shaping option that would see Ashfield, Mansfield, Bassetlaw, Newark & Sherwood and Gedling combine as a unitary.

Rushcliffe Borough Council in July voted in favour of one unitary council combining Rushcliffe, Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Newark and Sherwood and the other unitary covering Broxtowe, Gedling and Nottingham City.

Speaking to the LDRS on Monday, August 4, Reform leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, Coun Mick Barton, said, from his personal view, that he believes combining Nottingham, Broxtowe, and Gedling as one unitary is best based on “evidence”.