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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if her Department will publish the rationale for cancelling or delaying certain council elections scheduled for May 2025; what assessment she has made of the potential impact of this decision on local democratic representation; and what steps she is taking to ensure transparency and accountability in the electoral process during local government reorganisation.

On 16 December I wrote to leaders of all two-tier councils and of neighbouring unitary authorities, explaining that government would only postpone elections where it will help deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe. I carefully considered each request, along with all relevant information including the representations we received, according to the criteria in that letter. The bar for agreeing to these requests is very high. My letter has been published and is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-government-reorganisation-letter-to-two-tier-areas; my statement to the House of 5 February provides more detail and is available here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-02-05/hcws418

We will work with areas where elections have been postponed 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. Elections to shadow councils are subject to the same requirements, including for transparency and accountability, as those to established councils.