Devolution Priority Programme Mayoral Election Delay: CCN responds

Today the government has announced that it is minded to delay the inaugural mayoral elections for Sussex and Brighton, Hampshire and the Solent, Norfolk and Suffolk, and Greater Essex to May 2028, with areas completing the local government reorganisation process before Mayors take office.

You can read the government's ministerial statement here.

Alongside unitary councils in these four county areas, county councils have been leading the development and implementation of new combined county authorities.

Below, the County Councils Network responds.

Cllr Matthew Hicks, County Councils Network Chairman said:

“Less than a year ago, this government promised a ‘devolution revolution’ to extend the benefits of new powers and funding to county and rural areas whose economic potential has been overlooked for far too long.

“County councils have pulled out all the stops to ensure new county combined authorities were up and running before next May, investing significant time and resources to do so. Therefore, today’s announcement is bitterly disappointing, preventing these areas accessing all the funding and powers they were promised from May 2026 and is a missed opportunity for a government who has put national growth as its central mission.

“While the County Councils Network (CCN) welcome commitments to investment funds and capacity funding to progress strategic authorities’ arrangements in these areas, this unexpected development will pose questions over how these devolution arrangements will be taken forward, while injecting uncertainty for other county areas who rightly saw reorganisation as route map to greater devolution. CCN will seeking immediate assurances from government, ensuring upper-tier councils in these areas are given as many of the promised mayoral powers as possible before 2028.

“Delivering sustained economic growth and strong unitary councils to underpin new strategic authorities can only be achieved if credible, evidence-based proposals for local government reorganisation are implemented. CCN recognise that reorganisation will be complex and county councils have put forward ambitious proposals that meet the government’s statutory criteria, and crucially, were deliverable in tandem with devolution to boost local growth, while safeguarding care services and securing significant financial savings.

“However, CCN remains concerned that some of the alternative proposals submitted to government propose unprecedented boundary changes that will stifle growth and risk splitting high performing care services into smaller councils which could be financially unviable. It is imperative the government rigorously evaluates all proposals against their own statutory criteria to ensure new unitary authorities have the strong foundations required to deliver effective and powerful councils in county areas.”