Purpose

To delegate to the S151 Officer, in consultation with the leader, authority to spend funding from the Devolution and LGR reserve.

Decision

To transfer / spend up to £500,000 from the Devolution and LGR Reserve to the authority(s) holding the joint LGR transition budget to fund LGR transition costs.

Reasons for the decision

The LGR minded to decision issued on 25 March 2026 means that we need to start actively preparing for 3 new unitaries to come into effect from 1st April 2028.

Significant LGR implementation costs are forecast to be incurred in the next two financial years (2026-27 and 2027-28) before vesting day, ranging between £22.3m in the single unitary business case, £26.310m in the two unitary business case and £33.86m in the three unitary business case.

(Source: Draft LGR MoU).

A £2.7m Government Grant (£900k per Unitary) is to be received, which will offset some of these costs.

The LGR implementation costs are expected to be shared 50% Norfolk CC, and 50% shared equally amongst the 7 districts.

The share to SNC in 2026/27 is likely to be c£500k (£7m x 7.14%). We therefore need to be in a position to transfer resources to the LGR budget holding authority(s) when requested to do so.

Processes will be put in place to ensure appropriate oversight of monies being spent from the LGR transition budgets. Likely to be either via the Chief Execs group or the Norfolk s151 Officer group.

Alternative options considered

To only pay our contribution when specific invoices are raised to SNC - This would be an inefficient process and not in the spirit of collaborative working.

To not contribute to LGR implementation costs. - There is an expectation that all authorities will contribute to LGR implementation costs, and the share to SNC (7.14%) is reasonable.