A City of London councillor's call to review the authority's "unusually large and unwieldy elected body" has been refused. Common Councillor Leyla Boulton's motion, proposed at last week's Policy and Resources Committee, suggested a "limited electoral review" assessing how to reduce the number of members before the 2029 elections.
The City of London Corporation has 100 common councillors and 25 Aldermen and Alderwomen. All 100 common council seats will be up for election in 2029. Cllr Boulton's proposal was raised during a discussion about a potential Ward Boundary Review in the City.
Working party concludes against review
In April a working party was established considering whether such a review should proceed, and if so outline its scope and approach. As detailed in a paper which went before the committee, the working party concluded a review should not be commenced "at this time… on the basis that the evidence currently available did not demonstrate sufficiently material or widespread changes in representation".
Cllr Boulton urged members to back an amendment to the recommendations, stating they are committed to reducing the number of common councillors ahead of the 2029 elections. The amendment would also instruct officers to return with options for the committee to consider and enact.
She said she was not seeking to rewrite the working party's conclusions but was requesting the committee take a different decision, in particular given the budget shortfall arising from the Government's Fair Funding reforms.
Debate over size and efficiency
"The question we must now ask as we approach that financial cliff edge is how we can reduce the size and increase the efficiency of this unusually large and unwieldy elected body in time for the 2029 elections," Cllr Boulton said. "We have 100 common councillors and 25 Aldermen representing a tiny geographical area. We have a bloated and siloed committee structure which we already recognise needs reform. So much so that we're dusting off the ignored recommendations of the Lisvane Governance Review of six years ago.
"As we ask government businesses and residents to give us more tax revenue, surely we must demonstrate that we are prepared to reform ourselves first."
Deputy Ann Holmes seconded the motion with Common Councillor Steve Goodman also rising to declare his support. "I think we just have to think about how we're looking to the outside world," he said. "A lot of the conversation has been about the internal world, and I accept many of those issues, but I think the external world will expect us to do something about the number of councillors that we have and also to do something about the franchise arrangements."
Cllr Goodman pointed to the fact some members are elected with less than 100 votes, adding there is a view outside the Corporation that the authority is "the last rotten borough".
Opposition and concerns raised
Several members, including Common Councillor Jason Groves and Deputy Henry Colthurst, said while they have sympathy for the motion they believe the timing is wrong, with actions such as changes to committees to be completed first.
Deputy Chris Hayward, Chair of Policy and Resources, questioned whether cutting the number of councillors would result in reduced costs. "Just to make one point on this: reducing the number of common councillors does not save huge sums of money," he said. "So lest anybody thinks it does, it doesn't. That's just a fact."
The Chair of Planning and Transportation, Deputy Tom Sleigh, meanwhile said the number of members was not one regularly raised by stakeholders in the City. "When I walk through Liverpool Street station, Britain's busiest, I am almost daily pinned down by commuters who are no longer worried about late trains but how many councillors that we have at the Corporation," he told members in jest. "When I meet with developers no longer are they interested in inflation or viability or the cost of building anything in this country, no, they are worried about our siloed working."
Deputy James Thomson, who chaired the working party, said a reduction in members had been considered. "The reality is in terms of what we are facing as the Corporation we should not be spending lots of time and effort on work to look at how we reduce the number of councillors when there is stuff that we can do now that really reduce significant costs…those are the things we should be focussing on."
Amendment defeated
Closing the debate, Cllr Boulton said when she talks to business voters they are "horrified" to hear of committees with 30 people on them. "We are supposed to be the outfit that represents them, but how can we when we are at the diametrically opposite end of what good governance is?"
She added that by 2029, "savage cuts" will need to be made to meet the projected £70 million shortfall arising from the Fair Funding reforms. "When we're going to the Government to try and negotiate…how do we look? We look bloated, we look out of touch. And we do not look like we represent the fine businesses whose interests and merits we're meant to be championing here and across the world."
Cllr Boulton's proposed amendment was defeated when put to a vote, with three in-favour, 18 against and two abstentions.
Following the meeting Cllr Boulton said: "Cutting the number of councillors would create the momentum for wider reform and consequential saving ahead of a financial cliff edge in 2029 - whether streamlining what the Corporation does, or cutting the number and size of committees. By making councillor places scarcer and therefore more valuable, it would also tackle the shocking number of uncontested elections - an affront to democracy that afflicted 14 out of the City's 25 wards in 2025."
