Council leaders representing 18 authorities in England have asked the Government to postpone elections this year, ahead of the biggest reorganisation of local government in decades.
The Government wants to abolish two-tier council areas in order to devolve more power from Westminster.
With 21 county councils and 10 unitary authorities due to hold elections this May, some have sought to delay them to allow time to develop proposals on reorganisation.
Local government minister Jim McMahon said a decision on the councils’ requests will be made ‘as soon as possible’ (Peter Byrne/PA)
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it has received requests from 16 counties and two unitary authorities that involve “postponing their election from 2025 to 2026”.
They are: Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, Thurrock, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.
Local government minister Jim McMahon, responding to an urgent question in the Commons, said: “Where local elections are postponed, we’ll work with local areas to move elections to a new shadow unitary council as soon as possible. This is a very high bar, and rightly so.”
He added: “For the avoidance of doubt, this is a list of requests, it’s not the final list that will be approved.
“We will consider carefully these requests and only postpone elections where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the ambitious timetable set out.
“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 these requests and a decision will be made in due course as soon as possible.”
Shadow communities minister David Simmonds said it is “not surprising” many councils have requested a delay given the costs of arranging elections.
He said: “There remains significant uncertainty about where and if those elections will be delayed.
“And with deadlines looming for key points in the organisation in those elections, that uncertainty risks some wasted costs for council taxpayers.”
Liberal Democrat local government spokeswoman Vikki Slade said there is “no doubt” local government needs “significant reform”, although she voiced concerns that the Government’s plans will result in a “top-down diktat from Whitehall”.
She said MPs and district councillors from some areas, including Devon, Surrey and the Midlands, have told her that submissions appear to have been made without their district councils being “involved or consulted”.
Ms Slade, who remains a councillor in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area after previously leading the authority, said all elections due in May 2025 should “go ahead” as the reorganisation plans “will take more than a year”.