Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with refence to his Department's oral statement of 18 December 2025 on Local Government Reorganisation, Official Report col 1130, what safeguards his Department has in place to ensure that councils cannot request election cancellations due to perceived partisan benefit.

Local government reorganisation is complex and we have listened to councils telling us about the constraints they are operating within, and the work that reorganisation introduces on top of existing challenges. On 18 December I invited councils undergoing local government reorganisation with local elections in May 2026 to set out their views on the postponement of their local election and if they consider this could release essential capacity to deliver local government reorganisation.

Councils are in the best position to judge the impact of potential postponements on their area and in the spirit of devolution and trusting local leaders, this government will listen to them. They have been asked to make any request for a postponement explicit, as this will of course be relevant in deciding whether postponement is necessary for a particular council. If a Council does not make an explicit request or provide clear views and evidence in respect of their judgment on capacity, then the Secretary of State will take that into account and consider relevant evidence – but it will clearly make the decision making process more difficult and the Secretary of State will be less likely to decide to delay, given the locally-led approach taken. The Secretary of State is only minded to make an Order to postpone elections for one year for those councils who raise capacity concerns. It is ultimately up to councils how or whether they respond.

We have been transparent about this process and will consider all the representations we receive. The Secretary of State will consider the position of each council individually, weighing up the evidence received. The deadline for responses is 15 January and after this the Secretary of State will decide whether to make an Order to change the year of council elections and the House will be updated.