Helen Harrison: Holding Reform UK to account in North Northamptonshire

Cllr Helen Harrison is the Leader of the Conservative Group on North Northamptonshire Council and a councillor for Oundle Ward.

May 1st 2025 was a difficult and sad day for Northamptonshire Conservatives. We went from having large majorities and being in control of both North Northants Council (NNC) and West Northants Council (WNC), to becoming the official opposition to Reform UK. We lost many excellent councillors who were swept away by the Reform tsunami that was replicated across many parts of the country in the local elections that day.

In North Northamptonshire, Reform had 40 councillors elected, 36 of whom had not been councillors before. One of their councillors, Cllr Bloom, Lloyds and Corby Village, resigned recently after serious allegations were made against him. Of the 10 Executive Members (Cabinet) the four councillors who have previous experience, including the Leader, are all ex-Conservatives. The Reform Leader, Cllr Martin Griffiths, has previous experience of leading a Council as he was the Conservative Leader of the former Borough Council of Wellingborough.

When I became Leader of the Opposition on North Northants Council after the elections, I said that the Conservative Group would give the new Reform administration our support when we felt they were doing the right things and challenge when we felt they were going wrong. We want NNC to deliver the best possible services for our residents.

So, how are they getting on?

On the one hand, I am pleased to say that Reform is largely implementing work that the previous Conservative administration started. They have implemented our two new family hubs in Rushden and Oundle, completing the excellent work of former Conservative Councillor, Scott Edwards, and agreed the five-year Housing Strategy worked on by former Conservative Councillor, Mark Rowley. They have also implemented our work in other areas such as the new Cultural Masterplan, led by Conservative Cllr Helen Howell, and the Transforming Adult Social Care Provider Services Strategy, led by me.

The Efficiency Review is another continuation of work that we started. We delivered £90 million of savings and efficiencies over the last four years, putting NNC on a secure financial footing. Reform must continue to work hard with officers to deliver further savings and efficiencies during their term of office.

They are making some modest changes. We now have a flag policy which only allows the flying of the Union flag and our national flags, and there are proposals coming which will change the council’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2030, to 2050. Both of which most Conservatives and our supporters, including myself, agree with.

However, the Conservative Group have some very serious concerns about Reform’s broken election promises and know that local residents feel misled and let down.

Reform promised to reduce Council Tax. Just a few months on, nationally, they are now admitting that this won’t be possible given the increasing demand and cost of Adult Social Care. This was always obvious and pointed out by us at the time. Let’s not forget North Northants Council, under the Conservatives, delivered all our services whilst maintaining one of the lowest Council Tax rates in the country, over £400 lower than the national average.

Furthermore, they campaigned against more mega warehouses, a thorny issue in our area given our geographical position and confluence of major roads, only to approve a devastating application against the Local Plan. This will have a terrible impact locally on traffic, amenity and nature. There were clear planning reasons for refusal, and yet they went ahead and granted permission anyway.

Let’s hope they don’t break anymore promises! We are holding them to account!

As Conservative Group Leader, I am trying to tread a careful line when it comes to our approach to opposition. On the doorstep, it was clear that very large numbers of former Conservative voters gave up on us as a Party and decided to give Reform a chance for all the reasons that have been so well rehearsed since the General and local elections. We have to remember that we Conservatives, our voters, Reform and their voters, agree on much more than that on which we disagree. So, to gratuitously attack Reform, particularly with personal jibes, will not help us to regain voter’s trust and will backfire on us. I wish the national Party would take note. When it comes to Labour and the Left, that is another story…