Surrey County Council is looking forward to taking over public health, leader Dr Andrew Povey told a parliamentary committee discussing localism.

The Surrey leader was addressing the Communities and Local Government Committee about the Coalition’s Localism Bill, which is designed to shift power from central government to local councils.

In response to Conservative MP Bob Blackman’s question about whether the council was prepared to take responsibility for the delivery of health at a local level, Dr Povey said: “Yes, very clearly.

“The changes that are already coming in give us responsibility for public health and very much for the joint strategic needs assessment for the area, which really will define what health commissioning should go on. So yes, I am very enthusiastic about it.”

Government reforms will see GPs forming into consortia to take responsibility for planning and buying health services from care trusts and councils playing a greater role in public health.

Dr Povey also set out that he would like to see councils and the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) running a joint service to share benefits data and work to better meet the needs of local people and cut bureaucracy.

He told the committee: “We’d like to see more powers devolved to local authorities. If I looked across Surrey and looked at where the most public expenditure is, I think the piece that is missing is the DWP.

“If, in the future, we’re going to concentrate on these particular complex families that cost an enormous amount in all sorts of areas of public expenditure, then I think we need the DWP on board.”

Dr Povey said the Coalition’s plans to strengthen local democracy and hand power back to local communities had given “tremendous impetus” to the ways in which localism was already being established in Surrey.

“If we look back before the Localism Bill, there was a strong move to the personalisation of services, particularly in adult social care, and people were already beginning to talk about the same for children with special needs,” he said.

“There was already a thrust in that in the direction of personalisation of services. That was there and the Localism Bill has given tremendous impetus to it.”

He pointed to a plan being developed by the council, which has received support from the voluntary sector and young people, for management boards made up of young people, local community leaders and county councillors to appoint a local organisation or business to run each of its youth clubs.

“We’re getting a more locally defined service and probably purchasing more from the voluntary sector,” he said.