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04 September 2008 / Laura West , Jonathan Manning
Issue: 7335 / Categories: Features , Public
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Trouble in the shires

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Should the Crown's powers be limited to prerogative and statute? Laura West and Jonathan Manning report

In R (on the application of Shrewsbury & Atcham Borough Council and another) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government [2008] EWCA Civ 148, [2008] All ER (D) 25 (Mar), the Court of Appeal held that a non-statutory scheme used by the secretary of state for communities and local government for the re-organisation of local government in the “shire” areas of England is lawful, notwithstanding the existing statutory scheme but that steps taken under the scheme had no legal effect until passage through Parliament of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007.

Background

In October 2006 the secretary of state announced her intention to reorganise local government in selected areas of England to remove two-tier structures, ie county and borough councils in the same areas, replacing them with unitary authorities so as to improve service delivery and to make costs savings. She simultaneously published a white paper and a document

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