The Number of Councils in Wales

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:25 pm on 9 October 2019.

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Photo of Mike Hedges Mike Hedges Labour 2:25, 9 October 2019

If you believe that larger organisations in Wales, such as Betsi Cadwaladr, Natural Resources Wales and the Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust are the types of organisations that we think work best, then wholesale merger has its attractions.

Will the Minister confirm that the costs of reorganising ICT systems, employment and grading terms being equalised, staff movement, changing signs—and I could go on, but I feel like the Deputy Presiding Officer wouldn't let me—would be more expensive than any predicted never mind actual savings, and that in the last reorganisation, where there were mergers in places like Swansea, the costs of merger equated to approximately 5 per cent of the revenue budget?