Dozens of councils to be abolished by Labour in huge shake-up | Politics | News

Dozens of councils are set to be abolished under plans being drawn up by ministers.

Essex, Kent, Surrey, Hertfordshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk are in line to have their district councils ditched and merged into new unitary authorities.

There are 21 county councils across England, with 164 district councils below them.

But ministers are understood to believe that two-tier local government structures are inefficient.

Government sources told The Times they had consulted “extensively” with councils over the reforms and were only working with those that support the changes.

They highlighted analysis commissioned by the County Councils Network, published in 2020, which found that merging every two-tier council would save the taxpayer almost £3billion over five years.

Ministers are understood to have identified 10 areas of the country that will have the two-tier system replaced with larger unitary authorities.

The move is being led by local government minister Jim McMahon with the support of Pete Robbins, director of local government and devolution in No 10, and Sir Keir Starmer‘s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.

A White Paper on English devolution is expected to be published in the coming weeks.

But a group representing England’s district councils warned that the proposals could damage “local democratic accountability”.

Sam Chapman-Allen, chairman of the District Councils’ Network, said: “Local democratic accountability depends on residents retaining a demonstrably close link to the councillors who represent them.

“Attempts at structural change in recent years suggest that creating large councils is no panacea for resolving the many challenges local government faces.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “No decisions have been taken on council reorganisation.

“Our priority is to focus on the transfer of power from Westminster and work with councils to create structures that make sense for their local areas and work effectively for local people. We will set out further details in the upcoming English devolution White Paper.”