THE backers of a plan to dramatically reshape Devon’s councils claim their proposal could save around £500 million in just 10 years.

Seven of Devon’s district councils have collaborated on a proposal to redraw Devon’s administrative map in response to a government request to overhaul how services are delivered to residents.

A key area where the advocates of this plan believe savings can be made is in adult social care, whereby it says even just reducing the cost per head to a level closer to national averages would help.

A 300-page document supporting the so-called 4-5-1 idea claims Devon’s spend per head is £606.60 in adult social care, but Kent is £533.23 and Lincolnshire £423.35 per head.

That means it predicts savings in just that one directorate of £15 million a year or even £30 million in a “stretch” case that would see even harder efforts to achieve savings.

Similarly, the suggestion is that children’s social care also spends highly, with the 4-5-1 proponents claiming Devon County Council had the third highest spend per head of any of the 21 county councils in 2023/24. It adds that “other sparsely populated” counties such as Leicestershire and Lincolnshire “spend significantly less per head”.

The 4-5-1 proposal would see the South Hams, Teignbridge, West Devon and Torbay merged to create one unitary council, then East, Mid and North Devon and Exeter and Torridge combined to create another, with Plymouth – already a unitary council – left as it is now.

Westminster wants to eradicate the two-tier system of local government that exists in 21 areas of England, including Devon, which involves some services being overseen by a county council and other services within the same area being the responsibility of district councils.

Instead, it wants counties to have fewer but larger unitary councils, which are responsible for all services within their boundaries.

Financial modelling behind the districts’ proposal – dubbed “Reimagining Devon: Believe in Better” – suggested forecast savings of around £77 million from year six and a cumulative saving of £508 million after a decade.

Despite that, Exeter has developed its own proposal and not backed the 4-5-1 idea, while Torbay, which has notionally supported the districts’ proposal, at a late stage looks to be putting forward its own suggestion to government.

Devon County Council has been emphasising that retaining its boundary for a new unitary authority would be logical as it claims this would lead to less disruption for major services, such as adults and children’s social care. Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay have also submitted proposals.

A decision on which proposal is successful is expected to be made by the government in the summer, with the new councils going live in April 2028.