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

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether the Government plans to delay planned local elections for new unitary authorities after 2027.

Under the local government reorganisation programme, we anticipate that, on the most ambitious timelines, there could be elections to ‘shadow’ unitary councils in May 2027, ahead of “go live” of new councils on 1 April 2028. For Surrey, our expectation is that the only elections that will take place in May 2026 are elections to new shadow unitary local government, with a view to going live in April 2027.

We have no plans to postpone the elections which councils are scheduled to hold, whether to new unitary authorities, or to district councils in 2027. 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 timings and detail of elections will depend on the proposals received and the decision taken on which proposal, if any, to implement.