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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria he uses to postpone local elections under local government reorganisation.

Our starting point is for all elections to go ahead unless there is strong justification otherwise.

Postponements have previously occurred in areas undergoing local government reorganisation only where councils requested or agreed to the postponement. The single year postponements in 2025 were intended to help deliver both devolution and reorganisation to the most ambitious timeline possible in the area, and in Surrey, in the context of specific financial challenges.

Where an election is postponed, the criteria for that postponement is set out in the Explanatory Memorandum to the required secondary legislation for the consideration of Parliament.