SUFFOLK County Council's new leader has set out his priorities for the county.

Last week Michael Hadwen was elected to represent the Felixstowe Clifflands division at the authority alongside 40 other Reform UK candidates.

Cllr Hadwen and his administration, which will formally take over the council on Thursday, 21 May, have promised to deliver change.

A major goal is to scupper Local Government Reorgantiation plans for the county and the 28-year-old politician said his councillors were having to 'rush to the mark' but said they were up to the challenge.

Cllr Hadwen, who was born and raised in the town he now represents, sat down with the Local Democracy Reporting Service to set out how he would do so.

'Common sense and efficiency'

Prior to winning his seat last week, Cllr Hadwen had been a political advisor to his party's leadership at Kent County Council.

He said the role, which he had held since last December, gave him a 'blueprint of how a Reform council could run'.

Key to his message was the belief he and his team would be able to find significant savings to balance the books and invest through a 'common sense and efficiency' approach.

"We don't want to see any cuts [to frontline services], but what we do want to do is find a way to make these services more efficient," he said.

Asked whether this meant coming up with savings over and above what his Conservative predecessors had already found, he was resolute that it would.

In February, when the council set its budget, £46.5 million of savings had already been found for the current financial year alone, with a further £56.5 million by March 2030.

According to the new leader, the question is not whether further savings exist, but how fast they can be delivered as LGR, at least as of now, stands to make the council obsolete within two years.

"We're coming in and trying to do things in a very different way," he added, "our struggle is going to be doing it quickly enough."

Although no job cuts are currently planned, everything remains on the table.

The policies ahead

The new leader began outlining his plan by promising to overhaul the council's procurement policy to 'unleash' smaller local companies rather than big firms further afield.

He said this would allow the council to tackle issues such as the potholes causing hundreds of pounds in damage to vehicles across Suffolk.

Likewise, his administration will look at every contract held by the council and each department's ins and outs to see whether money could be moved around.

For instance, on home-to-school transport, currently costing the council more than £56 million, he said routes could be made cheaper while staying safe for children.

The departments to receive the extra investment would include children's services, adult social care and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

"The SEND crisis in Suffolk is severe," Cllr Hadwen said, "we want to tackle that head on and find the best ways to support our young people while at the same time trying to find the most efficient way for the taxpayer.

"We're going to work day in and day out to find that money that we can then put into projects."

Meanwhile, the council's climate change efforts – or 'net zero cult' as he described it – could take a major hit, as the new leader said he planned to scrap the climate emergency status, which the authority declared in 2019.

Pushed on whether projects which had been proven to save money, such as sustainability improvements to council offices and fleet, he said these would be kept 'as long as it makes sense'.

Asked what these changes would mean for residents' Council Tax, Cllr Hadwen said it would be kept as low as possible, but warned his administration was 'walking into a mess'.

He said: "Our intention is to try and limit the tax burden on every single resident, but also while keeping them aware of the challenges we are facing."

Back in February, however, Reform councillors – all of whom have been reelected – believed Council Tax could be increased by less than the maximum.

Social media posts

Cllr Hadwen was asked to clarify some social media posts which emerged dating back to when he was in university.

In one post, from April 2018, he said Enoch Powell 'was right' and 'just before the times' in his views on multiculturalism.

Powell's views on multiculturalism were outlined most notably in his 'Rivers of Blood' speech, in which he criticised the Race Relations Act 1968, which prohibited racial discrimination in areas such as housing.

Cllr Howden said he still believed Powell was right insofar as demographic change could cause divisiveness within communities, though he said he didn't agree with everything the politician said.

In another post, dating back to 2016, Suffolk's new leader said he would have Milo Yiannopoulos as his public relations manager if ever he became MP.

Yiannopoulos came under fire for saying sexual relationships between 13-year-olds and adults could be 'perfectly consensual', as well as being associated with neo-Nazi movements.

On this, Cllr Hadwen clarified he had only known Yiannopoulos as 'hilarious' and a 'provocateur' during the early Donald Trump days, but had no interest in what he was up to, distancing himself completely from him.

Still, he said he viewed his statements, made while at university, as 'irrelevant', instead pleading for residents to make up their minds based on his work.

"People can judge me on my words and actions now, delivering the job here," he said, "my plan is to deliver for the residents of Suffolk, no matter where they come from or what they look like."