Local government reorganisation: letter to two-tier areas
Source: gov.uk (2025-01-15)

Setting out the government’s intention to issue an invitation for local government reorganisation proposals from all two-tier areas in England.

The English Devolution White Paper (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-devolution-white-paper-power-and-partnership-foundations-for-growth) sets out how the government plans to deliver on our manifesto pledge to transfer power out of Westminster through devolution and to fix the foundations of local government.

The government’s long-term vision is for simpler structures which make it much clearer for residents who they should look to on local issues, with more strategic decisions to unlock growth and deliver better services for communities. Devolution over a large strategic geography, alongside local government reorganisation, can drive economic growth whilst delivering optimal public services and beginning to fix the foundations of local government.

On 16 December 2024, following the publication of the English Devolution White Paper, the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution Jim McMahon wrote to all councils in remaining two-tier areas and neighbouring small unitaries to set out plans for a joint programme of devolution and local government reorganisation. We acknowledged that for some areas, the timing of elections affects their planning for devolution, particularly alongside reorganisation, and that to help manage these demands, we would consider requests to postpone local elections. We have been clear that where local elections are postponed we will work with areas to move to elections to new ‘shadow’ unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government.

This letter set out that requests from councils to postpone local elections in May 2025 would only be considered where it was clear that postponement will help the area to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe. This is a very high bar and rightly so. The deadline for such requests to be submitted was Friday 10 January.

The government’s starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification.

We welcome the large number of areas that have come forward to recognise the benefit of mayoral devolution, reflecting our own ambition for pace and coverage across England. We have received letters from the leaders of the following county and unitary councils with requests that involve postponing their election from 2025 to 2026. We will consider these requests and we will only postpone elections where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe as made clear in the 16 December letter.

While not all areas listed will go forward to be part of the devolution priority programme we are grateful for the local leadership shown in submitting requests and a decision will be made in due course, recognising the need to give confirmation as soon as practically possible.

Counties:

Derbyshire Devon East Sussex West Sussex Essex Gloucestershire Hampshire Kent Leicestershire Lincolnshire Norfolk Oxfordshire Suffolk Surrey Warwickshire Worcestershire

Unitaries:

Thurrock Isle of Wight