Further delays for major council overhaul in nine of 14 proposed areas

The government has announced further delays to nine of 14 major council mergers in England, with only five now set to go ahead. Proposals for 14 regions to undergo mergers of smaller councils to form larger unitary authorities were put on hold last month by Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner, following concerns around legal challenges. Local Government Minister Jim McMahon told MPs that the review had found the government's decision-making to be robust, but nine areas have now been withdrawn for further review. 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. "I want to be absolutely clear that this is not a reflection of the work underpinning those proposals," he said. The review will now focus on the nine areas where current plans have been withdrawn, as well as four areas where plans were withdrawn in September: Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Two further areas, Cambridgeshire and West Sussex, are still waiting for merger plans to be agreed, meaning 15 regions in total have undecided local government reorganisation plans. McMahon said the government would move faster where it could, with some remaining areas receiving outcome decisions before others. "I commit to coming back to the House with updates for another set of areas by Christmas, and every area will have an outcome by early next year," he said. He also reconfirmed that local elections in May 2027 will go ahead on existing council boundaries, and announced that elections to shadow councils, which are 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 latest news as a farce, setting out how 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 told MPs. She added that the taxpayer had been left to pick up the tab for the delays, with a bill running into the tens of millions of pounds. Local Government Association chair Eamonn O'Brien called for a reset in relations between the government and local 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. "All councils affected need urgent clarity on next steps and how costs already incurred will be met." He said local government should be fully engaged in shaping decisions from the outset.