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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether his Department undertook verification of local authorities’ representations which noted insufficient capacity because of the scheduled May 2026 elections.

Representations were received from councils with elections scheduled in May, including from councillors and political groups, and from other councils, interested organisations, Member of Parliament, and members of the public.

The Secretary of State ran a locally led process and it was for councils to make representations and assess their capacity to conduct a safe and smooth transition to new authorities at the same time as holding elections.

In reaching his decisions, the Secretary of State carefully considered all the representations made alongside departmental advice on those representations.