Helping communities thrive at five – WNC marks its fifth birthday

01 April 2026

West Northamptonshire Council is turning five today, with a firm focus on improving services and outcomes for residents during its fifth birthday year.

The young unitary council, which was created on 1 April 2021 in place of the previous district, borough and county councils, has built solid foundations during its formative years. Now the authority is looking ahead to progress a range of key priorities in its sixth year that will boost business, growth and prosperity, create stronger and safer communities, care for local people and deliver more efficient services.

Plans for 2026/27 include actively pursuing a new devolution deal for West Northamptonshire in a bid to pull in millions of pounds worth of fresh investment into the area and gain greater control over jobs, housing and infrastructure, as well as continuing to drive forward major regeneration including key development schemes such as STACK, Greyfriars and Four Waterside and Marefair in Northampton.

WNC will also drive forward its priorities for better, decent homes by bringing social housing services back under direct Council management, continue to strengthen its work with partners to improve wellbeing and tackle hardship and step up its work to reduce fly-tipping and other environmental crimes as part of the Thriving Communities initiative.
 

There will also be a strong focus on engaging with residents and communities and working more closely with parishes and partners to shape a more open and responsive Council.

Councillor Mark Arnull, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council, reflected on the significant work that had taken place over the past year as the authority embarked upon the newest chapter of its journey:

“On the Council’s fifth birthday it is right to recognise and reflect upon the progress made in bringing services together and building strong foundations for better local services. 

“Since taking our Council into a fresh, forward-looking phase as a young unitary authority last spring, we have been working hard on turning our plans and priorities into real, tangible improvements for our communities. 

“We have achieved many outcomes over the past 12 months and are excited by the prospect of many more coming to fruition in the year ahead as we continue to work to make West Northants a great place to live, work, visit and thrive.”Councillor Mark Arnull, Leader of West Northamptonshire Council

Highlights of 2025/26
Here are some of our highlights of the work carried out by WNC during the previous financial year:

Thriving Place

• Hosted the Women’s Rugby World Cup, bringing tens of thousands of visitors to the area and delivering a significant boost for local businesses.
• Opened new relief roads to ease congestion and improve connectivity across Northampton.
• Made public transport more accessible, reliable and convenient, introducing extra and new bus services.
• Made significant progress on the regeneration of Northampton town centre and put on more events and activities at the redeveloped Market Square, attracting shoppers and increasing footfall.
• Prioritised a crackdown on fly-tipping, littering and other environmental crimes through enforcement action and the launch of a new Thriving Communities campaign.
• Successfully introduced a booking system at our household waste recycling centres to cut queues and prioritise local residents.
• Launched a robust crackdown on illegal and substandard Houses in Multiple Occupation, targeting rogue landlords.
• Agreed to bring services delivered by Northampton Partnership Homes back in-house to improve the management of social housing.
   

Thriving People

• Expanded our support for families with children of all ages with the launch of four new family hubs in Upton, Moulton, Daventry and Kingsthorpe.
• Reviewed Local Area Partnerships across West Northants to better join-up community health and wellbeing services.
• Improved services for children with special education needs and disabilities (SEND) through the completion of new facilities at Tiffield near Towcester.
• Set out a new approach for improving mental health services.
• Introduced a new strategy to prevent, reduce and delay poor wellbeing and health conditions and the severity of their impact for adults across West Northants.

 Efficient and Enabling Council

• Made a range of improvements and efficiencies to tackle the council’s ongoing financial challenges while protecting frontline services. This included finding £29m of fresh savings to help set a balanced budget for 2026/27, bringing the total savings achieved by the Council since its creation in 2021 to £144m
• Innovated to make services more efficient and cost-effective, including pilot schemes using AI to improve customer experience and predictive analytics to help prevent homelessness.
• Worked with our Children’s Trust to complete a replacement of our social care case management system, improving efficiency as well as outcomes for children.