Councillors’ terms will be extended

Twenty-nine council elections, including West Lancashire, will be postponed this May as part of the Government’s plan to reorganise English local authorities, Steve Reed said. The Local Government Secretary told the Commons the “vast majority” of polls will take place in May as planned.

But after more than 350 representations from authorities with elections due in May and other “interested” authorities, Mr Reed said he could “confirm” his decision on Thursday.

He told MPs: “I have carefully considered arguments made about capacity, reorganisation and democracy, and I’m grateful to everyone who took the time to express their views.

“I can now confirm my decisions to the House – I have decided to bring forward legislation to postpone 29 elections.”

City councils in Lincoln, Exeter, Norwich, Peterborough and Preston are among the authorities where votes will not take place on May 7, alongside several districts such as Cannock Chase, Harlow, Welwyn Hatfield and West Lancashire.

Polling day has also been postponed for county council voters in East Sussex, West Sussex, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Councillors’ terms will be extended. But elections will go ahead after a year’s delay for voters in some areas, including to elect councillors to Essex County Council, Hampshire County Council and Isle of Wight Council.

Mr Reed said: “I have received one further representation this morning and I will consider, then report back to the House on my decision.

“In all other areas, council elections will go ahead as planned, many having offered no evidence that it would delay reorganisation in their areas.

“This means, of the 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May, the vast majority will go ahead as planned.”

The minister added: “To those who say we’ve cancelled all the elections, we haven’t.

“To those who say it’s all Labour councils, it isn’t.

“I’ve asked, I’ve listened, and I’ve acted.

“No messing about, no playing politics, just getting on with the job of making local government work better for local people.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has plans to end a two-tier system of local government throughout much of England, where district and county councils take on different responsibilities in the same area.

This system will be replaced with a set of single-tier “unitary” authorities.

Mr Reed said: “Once the new unitary councils are agreed, we will hold elections to them in 2027.”

James Cleverly, the Conservative shadow housing, communities and local government secretary accused Mr Reed of trying to score a “political gotcha”.

He said: “It is clear what he wants – he wants to cancel all these elections.

“So, why does he not simply say so?

“Why does he not have the courage of his own convictions?

“Why did he write to councils asking them to ask him to cancel the elections? And why, when they didn’t give him the answer that he wanted, did he write to them again asking basically the same question? Why was his department putting pressure on councils to ask for cancelations as late as last night?

“I know why. He knows why. We all know why.

“It’s because he wants to shift the blame. He wants to say ‘I didn’t make them do it’.

“He wants a political gotcha.”

Mr Reed replied that he had “imposed nothing” and said he had tried to secure a “locally-led approach”.

He had previously accused the Conservatives of having “sat back and ignored this problem” of some doubling-up in local government, in places where taxpayers are funding “two sets of councillors, two sets of chief executives and two sets of financial directors”.

Florence Eshalomi, who chairs the Commons Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee, warned that “democracy is not an inefficiency that should be cut out” during the reorganisation process.

The Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green said: “Our councils should not have to face choosing between frontline services or elections.

“Democracy is not an inefficiency that should be cut out, and every council should have the resources to run local elections.”

Ms Eshalomi asked Mr Reed for assurances councils which were not allowed to postpone their polls “will still have the resources to manage frontline services” during the changes.

Responding, the minister said: “It is the councils themselves that have reassured me that they have the resources to go ahead with elections and deliver the reorganisation that is so important to improving frontline services to local people.”