Angela Rayner has halted parts of the Government’s local government reorganisation programme after the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government withdrew decisions affecting a number of council areas and ordered a review of the plans.
The move follows a series of legal challenges from councils opposed to the proposed shake-up, which is intended to replace two-tier systems of county and district councils with new unitary authorities.
MHCLG said decisions had been withdrawn across a swathe of areas while officials reassessed the proposals. The department did not immediately set out a new timetable for reaching fresh conclusions.
The Government has already announced plans for new unitary structures in several parts of England, including Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent and Lancashire.
But the programme has faced growing opposition from local authorities, with councils questioning the financial case for reorganisation and the process by which ministers selected their preferred models.
Suffolk County Council has warned that it will seek a judicial review unless ministers withdraw the plans for the county. Hampshire County Council has also begun legal action, arguing that the proposed five-unitary model is financially unsustainable and that the Government failed to explain the reasoning behind its decision.
Essex County Council is challenging the decision to create five new authorities in the county, after claiming that officials had expressed greater confidence in an alternative three-unitary arrangement.
The reorganisation programme is designed to simplify local government, reduce duplication and support the Government’s wider devolution plans. However, the legal challenges and the latest review leave councils facing further uncertainty over their future boundaries, governance arrangements and preparations for new elections.
