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

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to reorganise local government in England.

The Government’s policy is to work with local areas to deliver effective devolution with the governance necessary to support this, including moves to more unitary structures where this is wanted locally. Our aim, as it has been throughout our devolution discussions with areas, is to build consensus and the provisions in the Cities and Local Government Devolution Bill, to which the House of Commons gave an unopposed Third Reading on Monday 7 December, provide the flexibility that no one council can reasonably refuse to discuss with others the potential for reforming their area’s governance.