
Local elections in East Sussex, West Sussex, Essex, Thurrock, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Norfolk, Suffolk and Surrey will be delayed for one year to allow major reorganisations to take place, Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner has said.
Speaking to Parliament, Rayner said the postponement would pave the way for a “generational power shift from Whitehall to the town hall”.
She said that holding elections for authorities that were due to be scrapped would be “an expensive and irresponsible waste of taxpayers’ money”.
However, Conservative shadow minister Kevin Hollinrake said the “mass postponement” was a “worrying day for democracy”.
The shake-up of local councils, announced by the government last year, will see smaller district councils merged with local country councils to create single bodies known as unitary authorities.
The new bodies would represent populations of around 500,000.
In addition to merging councils, the government has also said it wants more places in England to have mayors, who would get powers over areas such as housing and transport.
In her statement, Rayner announced six new devolution areas which she hoped would get to elect new mayors in May 2026: Cumbria, Cheshire and Warrington, Greater Essex, Hampshire and Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Sussex and Brighton.
“These places will get a fast-track ticket to drive real change in their area,” she told MPs.
“While devolution can sound techie, the outcome is simple – it’s a plan for putting more money in people’s pockets, it’s a plan for quicker, better, cheaper transport designed with local people in mind, a plan for putting politics back in the service.”
Rayner said she had only agreed to half of the requests for postponements made by local authorities, and that delaying elections to allow for restructuring was a “well established precedent”.
“After careful consideration, I’ve only agreed to postpone elections in places where this is central to our manifesto promise to deliver devolution,” she said.
“We’re not in the business of holding elections to bodies that won’t exist and where we don’t know what will replace them.”
Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Ed Davey MP said the delays were a “disgraceful stitch up between Labour and the Conservatives”.
“The Liberal Democrats made sweeping gains against the Conservatives at the general election, and now failing Tory-run councils are running scared and denying voters a chance to kick them out of office in May.”
Reform UK has launched a petition against the delay in elections, with leader Nigel Farage on X claiming that “Labour and the Tories have colluded to officially cancel over 5.5 million votes in May”.
Some of the councils who had seen their request for a delay rejected responded angrily to Rayner’s announcement.
The leaders of Kent and Medway councils, Roger Gough and Vince Maple said the decision was “undoubtedly disappointing” adding: “The reason we have been given is both confusing and insufficient and we will be seeking more detail from ministers as to the rationale as soon as possible.”