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 10 Novembr 2025 to Question 87207 on Local Government: Reorganisation, whether his Department would consider another request to cancel elections on the basis of delivering (a) devolution and (b) reorganisation to be sufficiently strong justification for cancelling local elections in 2026.

The Department has received no formal requests to postpone elections from councils in Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock that were invited to submit proposals for unitary local government.

In terms of cancelling elections, I expect the secondary legislation that establishes new unitary councils to replace scheduled elections with elections to the new councils. For Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock I anticipate there will be elections to new unitary councils in May 2027.