The United Kingdom government has announced significant delays to its major council merger plans, with nine out of 14 proposed overhauls now postponed for further review. Only five of the original 14 regions will proceed with mergers to form larger unitary authorities, following a decision initially put on hold last month due to concerns over legal challenges.
Local Government Minister Jim McMahon informed Members of Parliament that while the review deemed the government's decision-making process to be robust, the nine affected areas require additional scrutiny. The five regions moving forward with their merger plans are East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The nine areas facing further review are Derbyshire, Devon, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, and Staffordshire.
McMahon stated that the government is withdrawing the decisions announced in July for these nine areas, emphasizing that this is not a reflection of the work that underpinned the original proposals. The review will now encompass these nine areas and four additional regions—Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk—where plans were withdrawn in September. This brings the total number of regions with undecided local government reorganization plans to 15, as Cambridgeshire and West Sussex are also awaiting agreement on their merger proposals.
The minister committed to providing updates on a set of areas by Christmas, with all remaining areas expected to have an outcome decision by early next year. Elections originally scheduled for May 2027 on existing council boundaries have been rescheduled. Elections for shadow councils, which were intended to run for a year before taking over from old authorities, will now be held in May 2028.
Shadow local government secretary Katie Lam criticized the delays, describing the government's approach to local government reorganization over the past two and a half years as "a farce." She also highlighted the financial implications, stating that "the taxpayer was left to pick up the tab for all of these delays - a bill which runs into the tens of millions of pounds."
Eamonn O'Brien, chair of the Local Government Association, called for a recalibration of the relationship between the government and local councils. While acknowledging the certainty provided to some areas by the announcement, he noted that many councils remain frustrated. O'Brien stressed the need for urgent clarity on next steps for affected councils and how incurred costs will be met, advocating for local government to be fully engaged in shaping reorganization decisions from the outset.