'Spiteful, nasty behaviour' - Wiltshire Council leader warns Government is 'kicking rural England'

The leader of Wiltshire Council has claimed the Government is "spiteful", "nasty" and "kicking rural England", while describing Labour's plans for devolution as unhelpful.

Speaking on The West Country Debate, Conservative councillor Richard Clewer slammed the government's decision to scrap the rural services grant, which comes as a result of proposed changes to local authority funding that would see more cash given to deprived areas.

Cllr Clewer, who has led Wiltshire Council since 2021, also said he disagrees with Labour's plans to introduce elected mayors across the country, ahead of an English Devolution White Paper due to be published next week.

"I personally dislike the idea of a mayor, I don't think it's helpful - but that's what [the] Government has said", he said. "Ministers have been absolutely clear that you've got to have a mayor."

Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire Councils have already expressed interest in working together under the Heart of Wessex Combined Authority, though they have made clear they don't support the mayoral model.

"So, at that point, I sat down with the [council] leaders of Somerset and Dorset, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and we all agreed, yes, we're going to need to put in the bid with that mayor. But we need to make sure it's a strong, rural voice, because at the moment all the mayors are urban mayors."

Devon and Torbay have already signed a deal which will transfer some powers out of Westminster, but the government is hoping local authorities will accept the highest possible option, and sign up to combined authorities.

Perran Moon, Labour MP for Camborne and Redruth, denied the claim that areas like Cornwall will be forced to accept a mayor, after a level three devolution deal was abandoned by the council last year.

Speaking on 12 December, he said: "We won't be forced to have [an elected mayor], absolutely not. There'll be no part of England that will be forced to have a mayor."

It comes after Angela Rayner, the Deputy Prime Minister, told ITV West Country that she is "enticing" Cornish voters to embrace having an elected mayor last week.

Tessa Munt, the Liberal Democrat MP for Wells and Mendip Hills, added: "When it is utterly clear that if you do not have a mayor, you do not get the money, it is pretty clear what sort of choice we all have to make. There's no choice attached to that."

• Will Cornwall be forced to have an elected mayor? The politicians disagree over the Government's stance

The three politicians also clashed over the prime minister's 'six milestones' on The West Country Debate.

Cllr Clewer said Sir Kier Starmer has set out a "good vision" but claimed Labour was unable to deliver on it's promises.

"The housing targets that they are coming up with are based on arbitrary numbers and they're piling a lot more houses into rural areas", he said.

"We've just seen the revised [National Planning Policy Framework] today - it's putting in even more houses. It's taking from the North, putting it into non-Labour areas from the South. There's a vindictiveness there that isn't helpful. And then on top of that, you've got a viability and a deliverability issue."

Meanwhile, Ms Munt warned the crisis in funding for special educational needs and disabilities "will bring councils down".

• Tessa Munt warns deficits racked up by the crisis in SEND funding "will bring councils down"

"The previous government was silly enough to actually just go la-la-la-la-la-la, and say 'you can shove this deficit... you can ignore it, pretend it doesn't exist", she added.

But Cllr Clewer said the previous Conservative government "wasn't ignoring it".

He added: "There were some well intentioned changes that were brought through in, in what, 2014 that have had a serious knock-on impact. The Government had started to take steps through what was called the Safety Valve Programme."

Cllr Clewer added the problem of council's being made to spend more than they can afford on SEND only "became apparent" about four years ago - something Ms Munt disagreed with.

Camborne and Redruth's MP, Mr Moon, said: "We've got investment going into schools, investment going into the NHS. When I go and visit local businesses in my constituency, it is schools, it is housing, it is the NHS that they want to see fixed, and they are Labour's priorities."

You can watch the full edition of The West Country Debate on ITV1 on Thursday 12 December at 10:45 and on ITVX.

Have you heard our podcast Talking Politics? Every week Tom, Robert and Anushka dig into the biggest issues dominating the political agenda…