Crawley Borough Council has agreed to submit a joint proposal with Reigate & Banstead Borough Council to create a new unitary authority as part of the government’s Local Government Reform plans.
Together, Reigate & Banstead and Crawley form a £13 billion plus economy, the largest economy in the sub-region, and conjoined by the world’s busiest single runway airport in Gatwick.
The proposal argues that the creation of a hard boundary between the two authorities, with the potential through Devolution of two Elected Mayors either side, would be detrimental to the Government’s growth agenda. Furthermore, it sets out the case that the proceeds of growth outweigh any savings that might be made through the formation of a larger unitary.
At the Government’s direction, this proposal had to be submitted by 9 May in line with the accelerated programme of Local Government Reform in Surrey. This is on a different timeline to West Sussex, where the deadline for proposals is the 26 September.
Crawley Borough Council will continue to work with all other local authorities across West Sussex to develop proposals ahead of that deadline. The Council is not stating a preference for either of the proposals at this stage.
Councillor Michael Jones, Leader of Crawley Borough Council, said:
“Colleagues and I have carefully considered this submission and have agreed that it is right to submit this proposal now so that we can keep this option alive.”
“We need to think out of the box so that we can create proper local Government reform and not keep to traditional County constraints. This won’t change people’s addresses or move us into London. But we need to think about our shared economy and how best to utilise this for the future for residents of Crawley.”
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