Why do some authorities want to delay this year’s local elections?

Sean O’Grady explores the implications of proposed reforms to the way Britain’s local government is structured – and how postponing the elections could benefit some parties more than others

In what is proving to be a highly controversial move, county councils all over England are seeking to postpone local elections due this May. The reason given is the impending reorganisation of local government in England, which includes creating new, larger authorities that encompass a number of existing counties – a result of the government’s drive to promote regional devolution and to lower costs.

Some of the counties keen on reform argue that they need to concentrate on the complex new arrangements, and elections would get in the way. The assumption is that the delay would be for a year. Some millions of voters would be “deprived of their local democracy”, according to the District Councils Network, which represents the smaller district local authorities, who are likely to lose out. As you’d expect, there’s lots of party politics involved, too...

What are the reforms?

This time round they’re concentrated on streamlining “two tier” governance, mostly in those English counties with famous, historic names – Essex, Devon, Surrey and so on. Sometimes this is coupled with merging a number of counties into one “combined authority”.

Since the last shake-up in the 1990s, many areas of England have two tiers of local government: county councils – responsible for transport, education, and social care, for example – and district, borough or city councils, who look after planning applications, refuse collections, and housing, among other things.

Of course there is also a two-tier system in London and the larger metro mayoral authorities, such as Greater Manchester or the West Midlands, where authorities such as Lambeth, Bury and Birmingham coexist with their elected mayoralties – but these are not being altered. Nor are parish councils. Police authorities and NHS areas often don’t align with local authority jurisdictions.

Who’s affected?

Many of those with “two tier” government, which include more or less all of the existing 21 English counties. A typical example would be Devon, where the county council has already voted to postpone its elections. The Devon “area” has eight district, city and borough councils, above which is Devon County Council; there are also two entirely separate unitary authorities, providing all services in Torbay and in the city of Plymouth.

The proposed changes would create a single combined Devon authority, with a directly elected executive mayor along with a devolution funding settlement and more powers, to come into effect in 2026. (Some dream of a “Devonwall” scenario, in which it would combine with Cornwall Council.)

It’s not yet clear what the old districts and the Plymouth and Torbay councils will do, if anything. There, and across the country, the district councils had elections last year, so those are not going to be postponed, even if these authorities are to be reformed or abolished in the near future. In some places they’ll be basically going back to the reforms of 1974, which combined old city and county councils into one unit, with some discomfort.

So who’s postponing?

Contrary to the impression sometimes given, it’s not being decided by Keir Starmer or Angela Rayner (the minister responsible for all this) but by the counties themselves. Thus far the following want to postpone the poll: Devon; East Sussex; Essex; Gloucestershire; Hampshire; Kent; Norfolk; Suffolk; Surrey; Warwickshire; West Sussex; and Worcestershire. Others may follow.

Who’s not postponing?

Some council elections will go ahead as elections for new authorities, such as the grandiose-sounding Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority, which combines the existing North East and North Lincolnshire unitary councils plus Lincolnshire County Council.

There will also be elections, as scheduled, for 10 unitary authorities (eg County Durham, Cornwall); for four combined authorities (Greater Lincolnshire, West of England, Hull and East Yorkshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough); two unitary boroughs (Doncaster, North Tyneside); plus two nonpartisan contests in the City of London Corporation (in March) and on the Isles of Scilly.

What are the precedents?

The elections for the Greater London Council in 1985 were scrapped by the Thatcher government in preparation for the abolition of the GLC in 1986. In 2021, local elections in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Somerset were similarly delayed pending reorganisation.

It’s complicated, isn’t it?

Yes, and it creates a kaleidoscope of different regimes across England, with Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland having the added feature of their own parliaments and governments.

Who benefits from postponement?

The Conservatives, who had a very good year last time the seats came up in 2021, and run almost all of the counties. Given their current low ratings, they’d expect to lose many of those in May, even if they’ve picked up a little support by then following the nadir of last July’s general election. Avoiding elections therefore means avoiding defeats.

Reform UK will be the big losers, as they didn’t even exist in 2021, and would benefit from their current momentum and a substantial protest vote in places such as Essex. Still, Andrea Jenkyns, former Tory MP and recent defector, might well win Greater Lincolnshire for them, and they’ll boost their local government representation anyway. Electorally, Labour doesn’t have much to gain, while the Liberal Democrats would have exacted a little more in the “home counties”.