Nine of 14 Proposed Council Mergers Delayed as Government Seeks Legal Clarity

The government has announced further delays to nine of 14 major council mergers in England, with only five of the proposed reorganisations now going ahead. Proposals for 14 regions to merge smaller councils into larger unitary authorities were put on hold last month by Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner, following concerns around potential legal challenges. Local Government Minister Jim McMahon told MPs that a review had found the government's original decision-making to be "robust", but nine areas have nonetheless been withdrawn for further review, after three more weeks of consultation. Mergers will continue to progress in East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. However, the government is seeking "legal clarity" in the remaining nine areas: Derbyshire, Devon, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire. In a Commons statement, McMahon said the government was "withdrawing the decisions announced in July" for those nine areas, adding: "I want to be absolutely clear that this is not a reflection of the work underpinning those proposals." The review will focus on those nine areas, as well as four areas where plans were already withdrawn in September: Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Two further areas, Cambridgeshire and West Sussex, are still waiting for merger plans to be agreed, bringing the total to 15 regions where local government reorganisation plans remain undecided. McMahon said the government would "move faster where we can", noting that some remaining areas may receive outcome decisions before others. He committed to returning to the House with updates for another set of areas by Christmas, and said every area would have an outcome by early next year. He also reconfirmed that local elections in May 2027 will go ahead on existing council boundaries, and announced that elections to shadow councils, set to run for a year before taking over from old authorities, will be held in May 2028. Shadow local government secretary Katie Lam condemned the announcement as "a farce", telling MPs the reorganisation had been beset by delays over the past two-and-a-half years. "From start to finish this government's approach to local government reorganisation has been nothing short of a farce," she said, adding that the taxpayer had been left to pick up the tab for the delays, a bill she said runs into the tens of millions of pounds. Local Government Association chair Eamonn O'Brien called for a reset in relations between the government and councils. "While today's announcement provides some certainty for some areas, many councils remain frustrated by the situation they have been placed in," he said, urging urgent clarity on next steps and on how costs already incurred will be met, and calling for local government to be fully engaged in shaping decisions from the outset.