Ministers didn't do cost review of English council mergers
The government relied on a report by a lobbyist group that now says reorganisation could make no savings.
www.bbc.co.uk
The UK government did not do its own analysis of the cost of the biggest reorganisation of councils in England for decades, the BBC has learned.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said "a significant amount of money" could be saved by merging councils in 21 areas into single authorities.
Rayner's department, the ministry of local government, based its cost estimates on a 2020 report commissioned by the County Council Network (CCN) that said £2.9bn could be saved over five years.
But the CCN has since revised its analysis and now says the reorganisation could make no savings and actually cost money in some scenarios.
Labourites expected Labour to invest in councils!!! Labour's investment is to merger some but true to form, they've no idea on costings and savings.
Pre-election forecast was it'll take decades to sort out Labour's mess. Yup.
