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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 June 2025 to Question 58771 on Local Government: Elections, whether she has made an estimate of the number of councils which will be subject to the transitional arrangements in 2026, and have their scheduled 2026 elections cancelled to make way for replacement elections; and in what year would the replacement elections take place.

Seven councils could have their elections replaced with elections to new unitary councils in May 2026. Surrey is the only area whose ambitious timetable is such that we will need Parliamentary approval by March 2026 to allow for elections to the new unitary authorities in May 2026 to enable new authorities to go live in April 2027.