Merger of Authorities in Northants

The Guardian reports on the coming merger of authorities in Northamptonshire, which is forced by the financial collapse.  The merger will make some savings, but also require one off costs in terms of redundancy payments and merging systems, which is what the Council's reserves can properly be used for.  Since Northants announcement that it would run out of cash, there have been news that both East Sussex and Torbay are going to stop all non essential spending.  The merger will not in itself solve the crisis as even a local Tory MP has noticed. 

This is a predictable crisis that requires central government to fundamentally reform local government finance across England.