Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the (a) earliest and (b) latest dates are at which she expects elections to be held to (i) the new unitary authority for the area currently covered by Hampshire County Council and (ii) other new unitary authorities for areas covered by County Councils whose elections have been postponed.

Government has agreed to postpone scheduled local elections for Surrey, Norfolk and Suffolk; Essex and Thurrock; Hampshire and the Isle of Wight; East Sussex and West Sussex from May 2025, until May 2026 only. This postponement is crucial in order to ensure that we can reorganise local government and deliver devolution as quickly as possible. For any area in which elections are postponed, we will work with areas to move to elections to new ‘shadow’ unitary councils as soon as possible as is the usual arrangement in the process of local government reorganisation. The exact date of elections to new unitary authorities in any area will depend on the proposals that are developed and submitted to government by councils in that area, and the decisions that are taken on implementing any such proposal. We also intend for Mayoral elections to take place as soon as possible in these areas.