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Council chief executives have warned Whitehall that local authorities must be treated as equal partners as the Government plans to rewire the state. Sector bosses have argued councils should not simply be delivery bodies sitting beneath strategic authorities after Whitehall officials initially suggested they viewed local government merely as a services provider.An early ‘bold' vision for reform from local government, which is still subject to final cross-party sign off, said councils were struggling with a ‘state designed for a different age'.The vision, seen by The MJ, read: ‘An outcome in which resources are focused at the strategic authority level while cost pressures are concentrated at the local authority level will undermine the potential of the devolution agenda.‘Devolution must not become another mechanism to pass unfunded responsibilities on to local authorities.‘Local areas cannot deliver integrated public services if national government continues to operate through separate departmental silos. Whitehall should model the collaboration it expects from places.'The messages have been communicated at the new local authority chief executive forum on rewiring the state formed by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), with the first meeting held last month. This group has brought together chief executives from key sector body organisations and each of England's nine regions, with a spread of urban, rural, upper-tier and lower-tier authorities, and a ‘particular focus on ensuring non-mayoral places are properly heard'.President of senior officers' group Solace, Robin Tuddenham, a member of the forum, said there was a ‘rare opportunity to reshape how the state works for the people and places it serves'. He added the ‘three big questions' for him were the role of the local state in enabling growth, how to make prevention the organising principle of public services and how governance should support both.Chief executive of East Suffolk Council Chris Bally, a member of the forum, said: ‘I think it's a genuine attempt by government to try to get an understanding of how local government sees the relationship between it, national government and strategic authorities. It is encouraging.‘This is an MHCLG engagement. There was a really strong view that if we're going to rewire the state it has to be a whole of government rewiring. We want local government to be an equal partner.'Another council chief executive in an area that does not have any form of devolution said: ‘MHCLG hasn't made enough of an effort to ensure that areas without a mayor or any type of devolution form the majority of participants in the forum. Those areas should be the focus, not ones that already have mayors and are enjoying additional powers and funding under local control.'Council chief executives have been brought into the fold to test Whitehall's emerging rewiring the state delivery plan, which is still being worked up ahead of its expected publication in late autumn. It is currently unclear whether this plan will be in addition to or instead of a rewiring the state White Paper on devolution.Whitehall officials said the delivery plan would look to provide greater local control over growth, more integrated public services and a different funding model. Their plan will attempt to work out how Prime Minister Andy Burnham's vision of ‘good growth in every postcode' will be turned into reality and how councils will work ‘alongside strategic authorities, national government and local partners in a single local ecosystem'.MHCLG's director general for local government, growth and communities, Will Garton, who is chairing the forum, claimed he was keen to have a ‘proper conversation' with councils but there is a tight timetable for the sector to feed into Whitehall's thinking.Top of the to do list for the group is working out the future roles of councils, strategic authorities and Whitehall, with the sector asking for a clearer account of how the tiers will work together.Councils have already pushed back on any idea of a hierarchy and are keen for strategic authorities to add value without doubling up on the work already done by local authorities.Vice chair of the County Councils Network Cllr Steve Broadbent called for the Government to ‘establish a clear delineation of responsibilities between strategic authorities and councils, ensuring new governance arrangements strengthen rather than duplicate local leadership – preventing the recreation of two-tier local government'.Broadbent warned that successful public service reform would ‘depend on ensuring that councils remain at the heart of local service delivery'.He added: ‘Councils must therefore be seen as the lead local partners for neighbourhood public service reform, prevention and service integration, with direct access to funding and ensuring no existing services are transferred from councils to strategic authorities unless there is a clear evidence-based case for doing so.'With a background in the sector, local government minister Jim McMahon is likely to be sympathetic to at least some of the calls coming from councils, including that Whitehall must rewire itself too by aligning departments, regional footprints, funding, data, regulation and performance frameworks and accountability around places.And there is support from MHCLG's top mandarin Tom Riordan, a former chief executive of Leeds City Council, who is keen to increase engagement and collaboration with the sector as he seeks to listen more to councils to inform his decisions.There is a chance the forum could extend beyond the initial three meetings, with MHCLG planning to ‘take stock as to how useful this format is for ensuring proper local government engagement at official level'.Whether the forum lasts may depend on whether the Government believes chief executives have helped make the delivery plan stronger.

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POLICY AND POLITICS

EXCLUSIVE: Chiefs push for councils to be viewed equally as Government seeks to rewire the state

By Dan Peters | 14 October 2026

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