Latest updates and timeline | Local government reorganisation (LGR)

England's local government is going through its most significant change in decades. For public sector professionals, this reorganisation creates both uncertainty and opportunity.

This page breaks down the most significant milestones for the transition to unitary authorities, outlining both previous and future steps for the local government workforce.

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Decision day | Previous phase | Current phase | Surrey's accelerated timeline | The timeline so far | About this page

From decision to legislation (July 2026 onwards)

With 14 areas decided, attention moves to the legislation. Each area needs its own Structural Changes Order approved by Parliament before any of it becomes law, and MHCLG officials are writing to chief executives with implementation timelines and initial decisions on transitional arrangements.

The practical work starts before the legislation lands. Each area forms a single Implementation Team made up of officers drawn from across its existing councils, and that team carries the transition until the shadow authorities are elected in May 2027.

Two areas are still waiting. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough should hear by October 2026 at the latest, and the government has been careful to say it will decide which option to implement "if any". West Sussex has no published date.

On 30th July 2026, the government published separate guidance on Local Government Pension Scheme administering authorities. Where a county council currently runs the pension fund and is about to be abolished, a new administering authority has to be designated, and the deadlines are tighter than the wider timetable suggests. Proposals for a Single Purpose Pension Authority are due by 15th February 2027, and proposals to move administering authority functions to a new unitary by 1st March 2027 for a decision ahead of the shadow elections, or 30th September 2027 if not.

Workforce note: the immediate priorities are vacancy management protocols, mapping which staff transfer where, and preparing for TUPE consultation. The staffing guidance encourages areas to agree a common approach to vacancies, filling posts internally or by secondment before recruiting externally.

Decision day: 16 July 2026

The wait is over for most of the country. On 16 July 2026, the Secretary of State announced which reorganisation proposals will be implemented in 14 areas: Derbyshire and Derby, Devon, East Sussex and Brighton & Hove, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent and Medway, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.

Between them, these decisions confirm 38 unitary councils, a mix of brand-new authorities and existing unitaries continuing with expanded or unchanged boundaries. Every decision is subject to Parliamentary approval of a Structural Changes Order, with elections to the new councils expected in May 2027 and vesting day in April 2028. You can find the confirmed structure for each area on our What's happening in my area page.

Two areas are still waiting. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will get a decision by October 2026 at the latest, with government citing the particular importance of Cambridge to national economic growth. West Sussex has been told more time is needed, with no public deadline given.

Workforce note: Alongside the decisions, government published new staffing issues guidance covering how council staff transfer to new unitaries under TUPE, how senior leadership teams will be appointed, and how staff are allocated where one council splits into several. It also confirmed transition funding of more than £1 million per new unitary council, including up to £150,000 per council specifically for leadership capacity in children's services, adult social care and public health. Ofsted and CQC published shared principles confirming inspections continue throughout reorganisation, on a proportionate basis.

Previous phase: Reopened consultations & SCO submissions closed

The first major milestone of this year was reached in January. Consultations for 6 areas closed on 11 January 2026 (East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, West Sussex). Decisions for 4 of these councils were announced on 25 March 2026:

• Essex
• Hampshire
• Norfolk
• Suffolk

On 26 March 2026, consultations also closed for the following 14 areas: Cambridgeshire, Derbyshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire.

Following the Secretary of State's March announcement pausing decisions on East Sussex and West Sussex due to boundary concerns, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) officially closed its reopened statutory consultations on 15 June 2026. This included reviewing critical modifications, such as the proposed transfer of multiple Lewes District wards into an expanded Brighton & Hove unitary footprint.

Concurrently, the other 14 county areas finalised and submitted their formal Structural Changes Order (SCO) representations by mid-June. Councils have submitted joint officer-level representations to the MHCLG mapping out transitional joint committees, implementation models, and employment frameworks.

Workforce note: Those representations fed directly into the decisions announced on 16 July, which resolved 14 of the 16 outstanding areas. The East Sussex boundary question was settled too: four Lewes wards will move into an expanded Brighton and Hove, while the parish of Falmer stays in the new East Sussex Council.

Current phase: Awaiting final Summer decisions (July 2026)

The government is currently reviewing the consultation results and structural proposals submitted by the remaining 14 areas, alongside the modified Sussex submissions. This includes:

• Midlands: Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire/Leicester/Rutland, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire.
• South & East: Kent, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Oxfordshire.
• North & West: Lancashire, Gloucestershire, Devon.
• Greater Lincolnshire: Covering the county and the North/North East Lincolnshire unitaries.

The feedback from these final June frameworks will allow the MHCLG to confirm the final "map" of new councils this Summer. It is currently estimated that these definitive structural choices will be announced by the government by mid-to-late July 2026.

Legal challenges to the March 2026 decisions

Six councils have brought or announced legal challenges over reorganisation decisions. All of them relate to the four areas decided in March 2026, rather than the fourteen decided in July.

• Hampshire County Council sent a pre-action letter in April 2026, confirmed on 21st May that it would proceed, and began its challenge in June
• Essex County Council resolved to proceed on 19th June, served papers in early July, and stated on 3rd July that its review had been accepted
• Norfolk County Council submitted its judicial review on 25th June and awaits a decision on permission to proceed
• Suffolk County Council launched proceedings in June
• Portsmouth City Council has been reported as having issued proceedings
• Harlow District Council launched a separate challenge on 22nd July, arguing the implementation timetable is not deliverable

The councils bringing challenges are under mixed political control, and not every affected council has taken the same view. New Forest District Council decided against a challenge of its own after taking counsel's advice.

Government's responses to pre-action correspondence disclosed that MHCLG officials had recommended different configurations from those chosen in Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk. Government's position is that the selected proposals best met its published criteria and, in each area, had the support of most councils. The County Councils Network separately wrote to government in June asking it to reconsider its approach.

What this means for staff and recruiting teams. Government has not changed the published timetable. Elections remain scheduled for May 2027 and vesting day for April 2028. A judicial review of this kind examines how a decision was made rather than whether reorganisation should happen, and the courts have historically set a high bar for intervening. Implementation planning is continuing across affected areas while the cases proceed.

Position as at 30th July 2026.

What happens next with LGR?

What are shadow councils?

With decisions now made for 19 of the 21 areas, "Shadow Council" elections follow in May 2027 (excluding Surrey, which held its shadow elections in May 2026 on its fast-tracked timeline). The shadow councils are temporary bodies responsible for a smooth transition in service delivery before the new councils formally take over.

Most new councils will officially go live on Vesting Day on 1 April 2028. Once the final two areas are confirmed, England's remaining two-tier map of more than 200 legacy authorities will be replaced by around 60 unitary councils.

Surrey: The accelerated timeline

Due to a need to stabilise local finances, Surrey has been on an accelerated track for its reorganisation, roughly a year ahead of the rest of the country.

The government confirmed a proposal for two unitary councils, East Surrey and West Surrey, back in October 2025. Following the Surrey (Structural Changes) Order 2026, shadow elections were held on 7 May 2026, and the newly elected shadow authorities are now leading the transition.

Two recent Surrey milestones worth knowing about:

On 7 July 2026, government issued a section 24 direction to ten Surrey councils, introducing spending controls during the transition. This includes a consent requirement for certain new employment contracts over £100,000.

Under the Structural Changes Order, the shadow authorities must appoint their chief executive, monitoring officer and chief financial officer by 31 December 2026, ahead of Vesting Day on 1 April 2027, when the two new unitary authorities will fully merge workforces and begin official operations.

Because Surrey is first, the rest of the country is watching. The national staffing guidance published on 16 July 2026 draws directly on the Surrey arrangements.

Timeline of Local Government Reorganisation so far

About this page

This page is updated regularly as new information becomes available. All information is based on official government announcements and publicly available documents.

Last updated: 30th July 2026

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