17 February 2015

Article by Alys Thomas and Rhys Iorwerth, National Assembly for Wales Research Service

A previous blogpost has set out the background as the Welsh Government embarks on reforming local government in Wales. This blogpost looks in more detail at potential issues around the Local Government (Wales) Bill, which is the first legislative step in that process.

(For more information on the Bill itself, the Research Service has just published a summary of its main provisions.)

Voluntary merger and uncertainty about the map

The Bill was introduced by the Welsh Government on 26 January 2015, and in essence it has two primary aims:

• To enable local authorities who have made successful bids to merge voluntarily to do so;
• To enable preparatory work to begin for new local authority areas that will be created by compulsory mergers via a second Bill.

One immediate question to ask is whether…