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<p>It is the statutory guidance, issued by the Secretary of State on 27 March 2018
under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007, which states
that a proposal for unitary local government should seek to achieve unitary authorities
with populations as a minimum substantially in excess of 300,000.</p><p>The Secretary
of State has issued this guidance, including on population size, having regard to
past reorganisations, the Northamptonshire County Council Best Value Inspection Report
of March 2018, and research, including that from the County Councils Network in 2016
into lessons from previous unitarisations which found that the scale of a unitary
council was key, with larger authorities able to deliver economies of scale while
smaller unitary councils were more likely to be less resilient, putting key services
at potential risk.</p>
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