Local Government Reorganisation (LGR)
When the Government announced its ambitious plans to overhaul the ‘two-tier’ system of local government in England, its goal was to free councils from ‘small town politics’ and to create councils that operate ‘strategically’.
The reorganisation of local government is intended to empower the new, larger unitary councils to be more strategically minded, allowing them to deliver upon the Government’s pledge to build 1.5m homes in this Parliament.
Delays upon delays
In December 2024, the Government committed to completing this reorganisation by the end of this Parliament, with new ‘strategic authorities’ established and underway by 2028.
To demonstrate this, the Government placed six areas into the Devolution Priority Programme, promising a ‘fast track’ route to new combined Mayoral authorities in 2026.
Seven county councils and two borough councils within the Priority Programme areas were allowed to delay elections in 2025 to prepare them for reorganisation, with elections under the new council boundaries scheduled for May 2026.
Unfortunately, the programme suffered a major setback a year later. In December 2025, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, decided to allow more local councils to postpone elections, to prepare for LGR, and abandoned the fast-track approach, leaving local authority decision makers in limbo for another year.
Five councils have taken the decision to cancel elections for a 2nd year and opposition, which was muted in 2025, has exploded, with opposition parties seizing on the process as undemocratic and claiming both the Labour Party and the Conservatives are “running scared” of voters.
This has only served to further destabilise political decision-makers and officers, extending an already damaging period of uncertainty and indecisiveness in local authority decision-making.
Where are the elections postponed?
29 district and county councils have announced the postponement of their elections scheduled for 2026.
However, the picture is uneven across England.
In Essex, the county council is proceeding with elections, while major districts such as Basildon and Harlow, as well as neighbouring Thurrock, are not.
Peterborough City Council and Stevenage Borough Council have both said they are unable to deliver elections in 2026. This has been met with some scepticism, as residents went to the polls in both areas in 2025, for Hertfordshire County Council elections in Stevenage, and to elect a new Mayor for Peterborough and Cambridgeshire.
Cambridge City Council, Oxford City Council and Milton Keynes City Council will all go ahead with elections. All three councils could see a change of political control but took the view that delaying the elections would lead to an unacceptable loss of public confidence.
At the same time, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Sussex and East Sussex County Councils, where opposition parties like Reform UK and the Liberal Democrats would hope to make major gains, will see elections cancelled for the 2nd year running. With opposition councillors labelling the current administrations as ‘dictators’ or ‘zombie councils’, the decision to postpone elections will remain a hot political issue moving forward.
Surrey will become the first reorganised authority to hold elections using its newly revised local authority boundaries when voters in the new East Surrey and West Surrey councils go to the polls this May 2026. This will be a major test for the principle of local government reform, as the appetite of the electorate for change will be front and centre of the political debate in Surrey.
The potential for confused voters, nervous local government officers and unpredictable politicians ahead of May’s elections – and beyond – is extremely high. Councils’ capacity for decision-making will be brought into focus in the next 14 months as they grapple with the ongoing fall-out of LGR.
What does this mean for my site
It has been more than half a century since LGR took place on this scale.
The reaction of communities and political leaders has been varied and inconsistent and will likely remain so, as politicians and senior officers jostle for position in the newly emerging local authorities.
This will lead to unpredictable and inconsistent performance from councils, with reluctance to make decisions that could create points of friction for future elections.
We have already seen individual political leaders take a renewed interest in redevelopment in their area, as they try to work out if it helps or hinders their own aspirations and public profiles. Local Plan preparation will continue but pace may continue to be slow, and levers like Grey Belt and mandatory housing targets may not have quite the same punch as they previously did – given councils are now much more sensitive to what may be seen as unpopular decision making.
Reform UK poses the biggest unanswered question for the sector. The current leaders in national polls are expected to make significant gains in May. Despite making pro-development noises in the national media, Reform has yet to demonstrate the same pro-development attitude at local authority level.
It is crucial, now more than ever, that developers have an accurate, nuanced and real time understanding of the impact of the ongoing political upheaval.
To sign up for our rolling coverage of the local elections, talk about your sites and understand the impact of election delays and local government reform for your business, contact the Kanda team at theswingseat@kandaconsulting.co.uk.
