The government has abandoned plans to delay elections for 30 councils across the country. The delay had been planned to help deliver a major reorganisation of local government. However, it was met with outrage from Reform, which launched a legal challenge, arguing that it was anti-democratic.
With Reform’s case due to be heard at the High Court later this month, Housing Secretary Steve Reed announced in a letter to local government leaders that the government had decided to drop the case “in the light of recent legal advice”.
Shortly after the announcement, Farage posted on X: “We took this Labour government to court and won.” Robert Jenrick – a former Conservative MP who defected to Reform earlier this year – described the government’s original move as “almost certainly illegal”.
As part of the reorganisation, councils across several areas will change from a two-tier system, with a county council and a district council, to a single-tier system. Under a two-tier system, the county council deals with larger services including social care and highways, whereas the district council is responsible for services including planning or waste collection. Under a single-tier system, a single council is responsible for delivering the full range of local services.
Ministers see local government organisation as a way of streamlining councils to make them more financially efficient, and to enable the creation of more powerful mayors. It has also been argued that a unitary system of local government is easier for residents to understand as they only have one point of contact for all local services.
In his letter to local government leaders, Reed said the government would provide £63m in funding to 21 councils. He also confirmed that the government would pay Reform’s legal costs.
The issuance of legal advice made this an impossible U-turn for the government to avoid. But it also opens Labour up to further peril on 7 May; the party will now be forced to battle for another raft of seats it may not be able to keep.
[Further reading: Britain is getting poorer, and angrier]
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