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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether shadow council elections in 2027 for new councils will utilise existing district magnitudes.

The government is committed to ending two-tier local government in England in this Parliament, and to move to new structures as soon as possible, including elections to new unitary councils in May 2027 in areas other than Surrey.

The government has not yet made decisions on those elections. The first stage is for areas to prepare proposals for unitary councils. We received proposals from the six areas in the Devolution Priority Programme by 26 September and for the remaining 14 areas the deadline is 28 November. In the statutory invitations we asked councils to include councillor numbers in their proposals, and they may choose to include information about electoral arrangements.

The Local Government Boundary Commission for England (the Commission) have offered support with guidance and a series of webinars. Once Ministers have reached a decision on which proposal, if any, to implement, then electoral arrangements for the new councils will be included in the structural changes order that establishes any new councils. These will be built using a mixture of existing wards, divisions or, in some cases, parishes. The government expects to work closely with the relevant councils and the Commission to ensure these arrangements are fit for purpose for the first elections and have regard to the Commission’s criteria. The Commission then expects to carry out an electoral review of all newly established councils after their first elections and before their subsequent elections.