Local Government Reorganisation: Cambridgeshire
Debate between Ben Obese-Jecty and Alison Griffiths(3 days, 20 hours ago)
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Ben Obese-Jecty
No, I will carry on.
The announcement by the former Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government on 16 July therefore makes little sense. He said:
“On Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex, I am not making announcements today, because further time is required to get the decisions right.”—[Official Report, 16 July 2026; Vol. 789, c. 1097.]
Could the Minister outline precisely what was meant when the former Secretary of State stated that further time was required to get the decisions right? Can he state definitively how much time is required, and can he articulate what specifically is in danger of being got wrong?
Alison Griffiths (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
My hon. Friend just mentioned West Sussex, which has also seen the deferral of any decision and a request for a third option despite the fact that the democratically elected councils had offered up two of their own proposals. We are still waiting for a decision and the way forward is still unclear. Does he agree that in both Cambridgeshire and West Sussex, this Government’s inaction and indecision are causing real harm to our constituents because all our council officers are taking so long to deliver this?
Ben Obese-Jecty
I agree with my hon. Friend. It is absolutely key that we get clarity on the timeline for this decision process—when it will be taken and when we can expect to hear—because there are local elections to prepare for next year and people need to know exactly what is going on.