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# County council leader says residents and businesses will be at the heart of plans for new unitary authority
- URL: https://lichfieldlive.co.uk/county-council-leader-says-residents-and-businesses-will-be-at-the-heart-of-plans-for-new-unitary-authority/
- Published: 2025-03-23T08:08:00.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-21T20:22:31.000Z
- Description: Staffordshire County Council’s leader says residents and businesses will be at the heart of plans on a new unitary authority.
- Author: Lichfield Live
- Tags: Politics, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-07-22 18:49, News

STAFFORDSHIRE County Council’s leader says residents and businesses will be at the heart of plans on a new unitary authority.

Formal submissions have been made to the Government by members of the the Staffordshire Leaders’ Board.

Proposals are being considered to cover the Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent area.

The first would see the Lichfield District Council area sit in a southern Staffordshire unitary alongside a northern body, while the other retains existing county council boundaries and works alongside Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The submission to Government comes after Ministers demanded an end to two-tier council areas – and also outlines the potential to unlock further devolution powers through either a Mayoral or strategic authority option.

Cllr Alan White, leader of Staffordshire County Council, said there was still work to be done before a detailed plan was submitted in November – but vowed leaders would keep communities at the heart of any decision.

> “As leaders, our priority in this process is our residents and businesses.  
>  
> “There’s growing consensus that a Mayoral Strategic Authority will bring extra investment and freedoms to boost our economy further. This is the real prize we’re working towards.  
>  
> “When it comes to the future shape of local councils, there is more work to be done.  
>  
> “Councils are hugely complex organisations delivering hundreds of different services. There are significant costs and risks involved in reorganising these – especially for vital services like social care – so we must get this right.  
>  
> “It is also critical that any proposals are relevant to local communities and support local representation and decision making.  
>  
> “We’ll be doing detailed work in the months ahead to test our thinking and we’ll follow what the evidence tells us.”

Once the detailed plans are submitted, the Government will then make a final decision on which proposal is taken forward.

Changes are then expected to be fully implemented by 2028 at the earliest.

Jane Ashworth, vice chair of Staffordshire Leaders’ Board, said:

> “The Government sees local government reorganisation as a crucial building block for devolution to work.  
>  
> “That means we need unitary councils that make sense in terms of economic geography, financial sustainability and local identity.  
>  
> “It also means ensuring that devolved power supports local communities to make the decisions that matter to them.”