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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what criteria she plans to use to assess local government reorganisation proposals which fall below the 500,000 population threshold.

The English Devolution White Paper, and the Statutory Invitation set a guiding principle that new unitary councils should have a population size of 500,000 or more. This is not a hard target and it is recognised that there should be flexibility, especially given our ambition to build out devolution and take account of housing growth, alongside local government reorganisation.

All proposals, whether they are at the guided level, above it, or below it should clearly set out the rationale for the proposed approach. Decisions on the most appropriate option for each area will be judgements in the round, having regard to the guidance and the available evidence.