Elections delayed in nine council areas as more town halls urged to come forward
Deputy PM Angela Rayner agreed to cancel elections because the Government is ‘not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist’.
May elections in nine council areas have been postponed for one year amid the reorganisation of local government in England, Angela Rayner has said.
The Deputy Prime Minister has also invited all 21 two-tier areas – which have both county and district councils – to submit proposals to reorganise themselves into single “unitary” authorities.
Ms Rayner, who is also the Housing, Communities and Local Government Secretary, agreed to cancel elections in May because the Government is “not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist”, so votes will be held in May 2026 after the expected reorganisation.
The nine affected areas are East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey.
Ms Rayner also unveiled seven new potential devolution areas with “a view to mayoral elections in May 2026” across Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Greater Essex, Hampshire and Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, Sussex and Brighton, and Lancashire.
Announcing the delay to elections, the Deputy Prime Minister told the Commons: “For certain areas, a significant amount of work is needed to unlock devolution and deliver reorganisation. For this reason, some areas requested to postpone their elections until May 2026.
“The Government’s starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there’s a strong justification for postponement, and the bar is high, and rightly so.
“I am only agreeing to half of the requests that were made. After careful consideration, I have only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution.
“We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist and where we don’t know what will replace them. This would be an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money, and any party calling for these elections to go ahead must explain how this waste would be justifiable.”
Ms Rayner added Surrey had been selected “given the urgency of creating sustainable new unitary structures and to unlock devolution for this area”, amid financial difficulties at Woking Borough Council where the authority had a £1.2 billion hole in its budget caused by “extreme” high levels of borrowing.
The Deputy Prime Minister earlier said: “Today, I will be issuing a legal invitation to all 21 two-tier areas to submit proposals for new unitary councils.”
On the seven new potential devolution areas, Ms Rayner said: “These places will get a fast-track ticket to drive real change in their area.
“While devolution can sound techie, the outcome is simple – it’s a plan for putting more money in people’s pockets, it’s a plan for quicker, better, cheaper transport designed with local people in mind, a plan for putting politics back in the service of working people.”
Shadow communities secretary Kevin Hollinrake said: “Contrary to the Deputy Prime Minister’s statement, she is not doing away with a two-tier system, she is simply creating a new tier of Orwellian-sounding strategic authorities which are closer to her and closer to Whitehall.
“These are for her to use as a pawn to implement this Government’s deeply unpopular socialist agenda. The reality is that this is delegation, not devolution. Not devolution but a clear centralisation.”
Conservative MP Sir Roger Gale (Herne Bay and Sandwich) said the reforms were “piecemeal” and would create “lame-duck local authorities”.
Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe said his Great Yarmouth constituents “do not like being represented by unelected councillors” as he sought a “copper-bottom guarantee” that the new arrangements for Norfolk and Suffolk would have elections in 2026.
Ms Rayner said she had been clear on the 12-month delay, adding: “Councillors were elected and we’re working with local councillors to deliver for local people.”
SNP MP Pete Wishart (Perth and Kinross-shire) said Ms Rayner’s plans had “all the ambition of a hesitant dormouse”, adding: “Where’s the grand Gordon Brown vision of a senate of the nations and regions and the abolition of the House of Lords?”
Ms Rayner also joked that Conservative MP Andrew Snowden (Fylde) “couldn’t handle my cocktails” after he invited the Deputy Prime Minister for a “pint or vodka cocktail” to discuss concerns over devolution in his area.
Speaking outside the Commons, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said: “This is a disgraceful stitch-up between Labour and the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats made sweeping gains against the Conservatives at the general election, and now failing Tory-run councils are running scared and denying voters a chance to kick them out of office in May.”
Councillor Tim Oliver, chairman of the County Councils Network, said: “Given the Government’s clear policy direction, most County Councils Network members now recognise the need to embrace the benefits of mayoral devolution, while it is also clear that local government reorganisation is necessary to unlock the barriers to more ambitious devolution settlements whilst creating simpler and more efficient council structures that are financially sustainable and recognisable to the public.”
Peter Stanyon, chief executive of the Association of Electoral Administrators, said the announcement provided “much-needed certainty for returning officers, election teams and the wider electoral sector”.
