UK Construction and Law

Four county reorganisations are withdrawn and fourteen more paused as the new Secretary of State orders a review

By Staff Writer  |  8 September 2026

Angela Rayner told the Commons on 7 September that, in the light of legal advice, the March decisions on Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk are withdrawn and the court has been notified. The July decisions on fourteen further counties are paused and reviewed. Elections in May 2027 go ahead on existing boundaries, and only Surrey's two new councils proceed.

The statement was made on Monday afternoon and the department's release followed at 16:30, together with a collection of withdrawal letters. For anyone dealing with a local planning authority in the eighteen counties named, the practical effect is that the council you are dealing with today is the council you will be dealing with next year.

What was withdrawn, and what was paused

The Secretary of State said she had decided to withdraw the decisions made in March this year for Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and, where relevant, their neighbouring unitary authorities, and that the Government's legal representatives had notified the court. She gave two reasons. First, in the light of legal advice, she wants to satisfy herself that the right process is in place and that it complies with the law. Second, she wants to test whether the proposals meet the priorities of the new administration and the new Prime Minister.

She has also ordered a full review of the programme, including the decisions announced in July for fourteen further areas, which are paused: Derbyshire, Devon, East Sussex, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, with their neighbouring unitaries where relevant. The release adds the two areas where decisions had not yet been taken, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex, to the review. The Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Regional Growth has been asked to carry out a rapid review and has written to council leaders.

I do not take this lightly. I recognise the huge amount of work that has already gone into progressing reorganisation in each of these areas, and I am very grateful for it.

Angela Rayner, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, House of Commons, 7 September 2026

Surrey is unaffected. The new East Surrey and West Surrey councils are already established in law, have held their first elections and go live in April 2027. Everywhere else, the May 2027 elections will be held on existing council boundaries.

The opposition's questions

The shadow minister, David Simmonds, asked why the Secretary of State was not satisfied that her predecessor's process was lawful, whether the non-privileged papers would be placed in the Library, and what the legal costs to taxpayers would be, saying the Government had agreed to pay the costs of councils that challenged the decisions. The Secretary of State answered that legal costs will be determined in the usual way, that local government reform is often contested in the courts and that the Government engages legal advisers to defend decisions when challenges are brought, which brings costs. On savings, she said reorganisation has to be about outcomes for people rather than savings. She told Gareth Snell that the Prime Minister's ambition is for every area in England to have, or be establishing, a strategic authority by the end of 2027, with strategic authorities everywhere by the end of 2028. The Speaker noted that the announcement had been made first in the Chamber.

Why it matters on site

Reorganisation was to have merged district and county functions into new unitary councils, which for the construction industry means new planning authorities, new local plans, new highways and building control functions, and new procurement bodies. Contractors on frameworks let by district councils in the four withdrawn counties, and consultants advising on local plan examinations in the fourteen paused ones, should now assume the existing bodies continue for the time being. The department says the forthcoming Rewiring the State white paper on devolution will set out how local government is to be simplified in future. Until it does, the March and July timetables are gone and nothing has replaced them.