The Government has urged Surrey to provide costings for a single unitary authority in its final reorganisation plans despite its councils having rejected this option.

In an 11-page feedback letter on the area's initial local government reorganisation (LGR) proposals, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) also rebuffs a call by the county to write of the debt mountain faced by its councils, insisting Whitehall's ‘default position' was that ‘assets and liabilities remain locally managed'.