'Who will pay the costs of paused council shake-up?'

What will come next for Devon after a surprise announcement by the government to "pause" plans for the biggest shake-up of local government for more than 50 years?

The plan approved by the government was to abolish all the district, county and unitary councils in Devon and replace them with four new unitary councils - with Plymouth, Torbay and Exeter all expanding.

According to the architects of that plan - the Labour leaders of Plymouth and Exeter - the "pause" by the government is a delay that is worthwhile to "get it right".

But the leader of Devon County Council believes the scheme is "cancelled" and wants compensation from the government for the time and money it has already spent.

Devon County Council has consistently opposed the government's proposals and had started putting together a case for Judicial Review of the reorganisation, with other councils around the country also threatening legal action.

Angela Rayner, local government secretary, told parliament she was "pausing" the plans "in light of legal advice" and wanted to satisfy herself "the right process is in place, that it is robust, and of course complies with the law".

It is not known what legal advice Rayner was acting on.

Devolution to the regions is a flagship policy of the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, with a government announcement on Thursday of powers to raise a tourism tax being given to mayors and regional leaders.

In parliament, Rayner added: "I want to fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of a new administration and a new prime minister."

Devon County Council has said it will be "preserving our ability to issue judicial review proceedings if required".

This is probably the biggest question - what does it mean when the government says it is pausing and reviewing its plans?

According to the Liberal Democrat leader of Devon County Council, Julian Brazil, this is the end of the plans previously approved for Devon.

He said: "In my own mind I think local government reorganisation is cancelled in the immediate future."

Brazil said he gave credit to the government for listening to people's concerns.

"We welcome the government's decision to pause and review the current proposals and are now seeking urgent clarification on what that pause and review will mean in practice," he said.

Various options on how Devon should be carved up were put forward by councils and the government chose the plan put forward by the Labour leaders of Plymouth City Council and Exeter City Council.

Phil Bialyk, leader of Exeter City Council, said he still expected the proposals for the expansion of urban areas to go through, albeit delayed.

He said his interpretation of Rayner's speech was she needed to ensure the process had been correct and would withstand any legal challenges, but the outcome would not necessarily change.

He said: "I'm disappointed that we can't proceed but nothing has been taken away.

"I'm going to work hard to make sure it goes ahead but I've got to wait now until the ministerial team review it and come back to demonstrate they've made sure it's robust."

The Conservative leader of Torbay Council, Dave Thomas, had backed a plan to expand Exeter and Plymouth while keeping Torbay's boundaries as they were.

He said: "Whilst this option was not chosen, I hope this review means this option will be re-examined before any further decisions are made."

• December 2024 - The government announces plans for the reorganisation of local government, saying it wants to streamline services and give more power to the regions
• December 2024 - The leader of Exeter City Council announces a bid to become a unitary authority and expand the area under its control
• March 2025 - Plymouth City Council announces its plans to take over control of parts of Dartmoor and the South Hams
• September 2025 - Devon County Council reveals its plan to keep the boundaries as they are
• October 2025 - District councils in Devon put forward the 4-5-1 plan to split the county into three
• January 2026 - Exeter City Council says it will put in a request to the government to cancel elections due to the work needed on local government reorganisation
• February 2026 - Elections are back on in Exeter after the government abandons plans to postpone council elections across the country
• July 2026 - The government says it is backing the plans for the expansion of Plymouth, Exeter and Torbay with a fourth unitary authority covering the rest of Devon
• September 2026 - The government announces it is putting plans for local government reorganisation on hold

The cost of this process is likely to be the subject of a huge amount of scrutiny.

The claims being made by Devon County Council on one hand and by Plymouth City Council and Exeter City Council are different.

The government previously said it was giving funding of "more than £1m per new unitary created" for the transition to the new councils.

The business case put forward by Exeter and Plymouth estimated a cost of more than £70m across Devon to change from the current system to four new unitary councils but Devon County Council claims the work would cost closer to £90m.

Paul Arnott, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader of Devon County Council, and leader of East Devon District Council, said the work up until now had already cost millions.

He said: "At both county and district levels, at least 30% of officer capacity has been redirected to work on local government reorganisation - that is multiple millions of pounds."

Tudor Evans, Labour leader of Plymouth City Council, questioned that figure and said he looked forward to seeing more information regarding the county council's calculations.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said it would "consider council costs and how to support areas through the next stage of the process".

The pause in the plans is not expected to have an immediate impact on most residents in Devon.

Some people were starting to worry about issues such as bin collections and recycling centres.

Two neighbours in Totnes were going to find themselves in different unitary councils, with different services available and different levels of council tax bills, but will now get a reprieve.

One of the biggest impacts would be on the thousands of staff at the eleven district, county and unitary councils across Devon, who were preparing for the organisations to be abolished.

The government also made it clear elections at existing councils are now due to take place in May 2027.

They had been cancelled due to the reorganisation process but have now been reinstated with elections due across the county, but not at Devon County Council.

There were due to be shadow elections for all of the new unitary authorities in May 2027 ahead of the new authorities taking control in April 2028.

Those elections have not been formally cancelled but the feeling among many councillors is they are unlikely to go ahead.

Crucially, no timescale has been set for how long the government's review will take. But, with so many twists and turns along the way, people involved have said it is difficult to have any certainty what will happen next.

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