Unitary Councils

Mrs. Spelman
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what her Department's latest estimate is of the cost of unitary restructuring in the areas which have new unitary councils.

John Healey
When seeking parliamentary approval for the nine new unitary councils, we estimated transitional restructuring costs of around £138 million, with total annual savings of at least £100 million. Our latest estimates, following a stocktake exercise we with the support of independent financial experts have undertaken prior to 1 April 2009, are for the restructuring costs to be around £135 million, slightly less than the original estimate.