No council shake-up before general election says leader

The leader of Suffolk County Council, Michael Hadwen, has told a meeting he does not believe Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) will happen in Suffolk before the next general election.

The Reform UK councillor was responding to a question on LGT at the council's cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Hadwen said he had met the minister of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) earlier in the week and discussed the matter.

The government had agreed the county should be split into three councils under LGR, but Reform put in a legal challenge on how the decision was made and the plans have now been paused.

Hadwen told the meeting his discussion with the minister suggested an announcement was due on LGR before the end of the month.

The shake-up of councils in Suffolk would have seen all services being provided by just three councils, replacing the county council and the five district councils of Babergh, East Suffolk, Ipswich, Mid Suffolk and West Suffolk.

Last month the secretary of state for the MHCLG, Angela Rayner, told the BBC she wanted to be "clear-eyed" about the plans.

It followed her announcement that she was abandoning the proposals in four areas, including Suffolk, in the face of legal threats from Reform and Conservative-led authorities.

Elections for shadow authorities should have taken place in May 2027, with the new councils formally taking over responsibilities by May 2028.

Now the May 2027 elections will be for the five district councils. Suffolk County Council elections are not due until May 2029.

An alternative option to the council being split into three was put forward by the county council's last Conservative administration but was discarded by the government.

Hadwen said he had been asked if the alternative model of one council for the whole of Suffolk was more palatable. He said: "The problem for us is we didn't write that. We weren't involved in the process."

He said he wasn't opposed to change.

He added: "I'd like to see more powers, more devolution come to us, but the model has to be right. And it needs to be something that we can look our residents in the eye and say it's for their best interests.

"So at the moment, I do not believe, and I maintain this, that LGR will happen before the next general election."

An MHCLG spokesperson said: "We recognise the need to provide certainty so areas have clarity over their future and will set out next steps in due course.

"It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."

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