Steff Aquarone
Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk since July 2024.
North Norfolk's district council lost £600,000 on a county merger that ministers abandoned on 7 September 2026, Steff Aquarone told Angela Rayner in the Commons, saying the council had been "made to waste" the money.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026 · Appears in 1 active topic
Who pays for the £600,000 North Norfolk spent on a scrapped merger?
Timeline for Steff Aquarone
Told Rayner his district council had been made to waste £600,000
UK Local Elections 2026: McMahon drops four mergers on legal adviceBackground
Steff Aquarone is the Liberal Democrat MP for North Norfolk. He won the seat on 4 July 2024, unseating the Conservative Duncan Baker with a majority of 2,585.
Before Westminster he represented Melton Constable on Norfolk County Council from 2017 to 2026, and he led the county's Liberal Democrat group from 2020 to 2021. His earlier career was in digital media, where he co-founded several businesses. Parliament records his full first name as Steffan.
Since 2024 his most visible Commons cause has been local government reform. He pressed ministers in September 2026 over what North Norfolk District Council had spent on a reorganisation the government then abandoned.
Aquarone counts the cost of the merger
On 7 September 2026 Jim McMahon, the local government minister, dropped the March reorganisation decisions for Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk after legal advice. When Rayner reported the climbdown to the Commons, Aquarone put a figure on the cost to his patch: North Norfolk District Council, he said, had been "made to waste £600,000" preparing for a merger that will not now happen.
The reversal keeps North Norfolk Council in being for now. Elections across Norfolk in May 2027 will use the existing boundaries. Aquarone knows both tiers: he sat on Norfolk County Council for nearly a decade before reaching Westminster, so the wasted preparation lands on councils he has served alongside.
Who is the MP for North Norfolk?
How much did North Norfolk council spend on the scrapped reorganisation?
