The National Assembly for Wales' Finance Committee has outlined a number of actions it says are needed to ensure that the costs and benefits of local authority mergers are provided for The Local Government (Wales) Bill to be effective.
The principal aim of the Bill is to enable preparations to be made for a programme of local government mergers and reform and to allow Principal Local Authorities to merge voluntarily by April 2018.
Jocelyn Davies AM Chair of the Committee said:
"The Committee is concerned that the Bill will give Welsh Government the power to approve the voluntary mergers without the costs and benefits of the mergers being known.
"We felt that clarity is needed as to how the costs of voluntary mergers will be scrutinised and recommend that the Welsh Government works with local government to prepare a clear plan for how it will estimate the costs of mergers.
"The Committee also believes there are some areas which need further consideration in relation to the thresholds of transition committees and recommends the Minister review this area of the Bill."
Finance Committee Report - Report on the Local Government (Wales) Bill (PDF, 280KB)