Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the implications of the outcome of the referendum held by the district Councils in Somerset on the matter of unitary authorities.

On 27 April I said in response to the Hon Member’s questions of 20 April (UIN 184363, 184364, 184365, 184366, 184367, 184368) that thousands of responses had been received to the consultation on local government reorganisation in Somerset, and that these responses were being analysed. I can now confirm that over 5,000 responses have been received from this consultation on the two proposals for unitary local government in Somerset.

The Secretary of State is now carefully considering the reorganisation proposals for Somerset to decide which, if any, should be implemented, subject to Parliamentary approval. In doing so, he will have regard to all the relevant information available to him, including the results of the local poll, and to all the representations he has received, including representations about the local poll and its conduct.

The Secretary of State expects to announce his decisions on the unitary proposals before the summer along with a summary of consultation responses.