A national government consultation on the future of Warwickshire's councils launches tomorrow (Thursday 5 February). 

Lasting seven weeks, it will gather views on how the region changes from a model that currently splits services across a county and district and borough councils to one that handles those services through one level of local government. 

Two options have been put forward – a single county-wide unitary based on the current Warwickshire County Council footprint or splitting the county in two with unitary councils covering the north (current Nuneaton & Bedworth, North Warwickshire and Rugby patches) and south (current Warwick and Stratford district patches).

National government is expected to choose the model Warwickshire will adopt in June or July with the results of the upcoming engagement set to inform that call – it is an entirely separate process to the feedback that councils considered ahead of putting forward the two options to the government. 

The arguments for and against have rumbled on since the national government announced plans to streamline two-tier council areas back in December 2024. 

Warwickshire County Council has made the case not only for a single county-wide unitary but also to hold 'continuing authority' status until any new council is formed in April 2028 "to ease transition and minimise cost to the public". It argues that the greatest financial savings can be achieved through one council and that splitting into two could risk creating a rich half and poor half of the county.

Rugby Borough Council supports many of those practical arguments but shares the concerns of the rest of the county's districts and boroughs over the prospect of 'continuing authority' status embedding the current county council's culture in what is meant to be a new organisation. 

The other four districts and boroughs back two unitaries, highlighting the benefits of local decision making and representation while also casting doubt over the economies of scale that the county's financial argument relies upon. 

The two-unitary option is also the only vehicle for Warwickshire to form its own strategic authority in the future, although most on both sides of the fence accept that admission into the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) would be the best option. Current West Midlands mayor Richard Parker is said to be supportive of the two-unitary split. 

In Wednesday's update to Stratford-on-Avon District Council's overview and scrutiny committee, chief executive David Buckland confirmed that the consultation was scheduled to go live on Thursday. 

"As soon as we get the website link we will circulate to all of our members," he said. 

"We are also doing communications to make sure all of our public, residents and stakeholders are aware it will be launched."

He still expects the government's decision to be announced in July.

The chief executives of Warwickshire's six biggest councils met last week to get moving on preparation work that can be done now irrespective of the model chosen with each holding membership of a new project board.

"Each of us will then be project sponsor for a particular workstream relating to areas such as governance, finance, HR (human resources), IT (information technology), procurement and contracts and asset management," said Mr Buckland. 

"Those are the areas of activity we will be looking at, effectively putting the building blocks in place. We don't know quite what we are building yet but we can get all the information we need to take that forward.

"Everyone is approaching those conversations very positively and there is a joint commitment from all of the councils that we will work together on the best implementation whatever model is selected."

Feedback from councillors including the importance of flagging the consultation with town and parish councils.

"We had requested that the town and parish councils be named consultees, the government aren't (doing that), but of course they can all respond in their own right," said Mr Buckland.

"We will absolutely make that available, make them aware of the process and where they can find the link."