Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect to announce changes to local government structures in Oxfordshire.

Whilst the Secretary of State is committed to consider any proposals for unitarisation or mergers where requested, his current priority in relation to the six Oxfordshire councils is ensuring that the ambition demonstrated by Oxfordshire’s housing deal - to which all six councils have now agreed – is delivered against. Accordingly he has no immediate plans to reach a judgement on the proposal to replace all six councils with a new single council, which three of the six councils have submitted.