Leaders say council shake-up delay ‘right thing to do for residents’ in Nottinghamshire

Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), the largest local government shake-up in 50 years, was announced back in December 2024 by Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government.

Its aim was to abolish the current two-tier council structures across England in favour of larger unitary authorities, to reduce costs and overlap.

In July, the government announced its preferred option was that of Nottingham City Council’s bid to expand the city’s boundaries.

Under this plan all councils, including the city, county and all borough and district authorities, would have been abolished.

A new Greater Nottingham Council would have covered Nottingham city and parts of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe.

A second Nottinghamshire Council would then have served the remainder of Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe, as well as Ashfield, Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Newark and Sherwood.

However, the City Council’s option came under fire, and some council leaders plotted to legally challenge the decision – including Reform-led Nottinghamshire County Council.

Soon after Andy Burnham became Prime Minister, his government announced an abrupt pause on LGR in England in early September, while all options were put under review.

On Thursday the government confirmed Nottingham City Council’s boundary review proposal has been withdrawn, with all options now back on the table for review.

Coun Mick Barton (Ref), leader of Nottinghamshire County Council, welcomed the news and cited his group’s legal challenge as one reason for the withdrawal of the current proposals by the government.

“It is the right thing to do for residents,” Coun Barton said. “I am really happy. There will be some unhappy people but they have made the right decision in my opinion.

“They have said today they are going to give us half of the £900,000 they were going to give us to help us out with the expense. It is fine, it is better than nothing. Now we will move on in a positive way.

“I’m really happy we stuck to our guns and put the judicial review in. Our group are really happy.”

Coun Paul Peacock (Lab), leader of Newark and Sherwood District Council, said: “It is certainly not cancelled but the options are being reconsidered. That is the situation, and for some good reasons I think.

“For me the bottom line was that I always thought ‘bii’ was the wrong decision and the best option for residents of Nottinghamshire was 1e… in terms of financial sustainability and operational efficiencies.

“It is certainly better to take our time to make sure we make the right decision and have that extra time to make sure we have a smooth changeover from the present system to unitary authorities.

“Nottinghamshire local authorities are still committed to working together to make sure we get the best outcome for our residents.”

Coun Sam Smith, Conservative leader of Nottinghamshire County Council’s opposition, described the current situation as ‘an untter mess’

added: “Local Government Reorganisation under this Labour Government has been a complete and utter mess from start to finish and hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ pounds have been wasted on it.

“Under my leadership, Nottinghamshire’s Conservative councillors have always fought against districts being split up and in favour of a unitary authority based on the existing Nottinghamshire boundary.

“Reform and Labour ignored this. They moved forward with options that involved splitting up our wonderful county. We Conservatives called for all that to be halted as it would have involved every household paying higher taxes for worse services.

“The Government have now been forced into withdrawing LGR across Nottinghamshire and if they reintroduce it in the New Year the residents of Nottinghamshire can be assured that local Conservatives will never stop fighting for the protection of Nottinghamshire county, good local services and low council tax.”

Mayor of the East Midlands, Claire Ward (Lab), welcomed the day and said: “I think the government is right to want to get this right.

“This is a massive decision. This is about making sure that those boundaries – those new authorities – are the right ones, and so they’ve taken the existing decision off the table, but they are looking at all of the same options again.

“And I hope that we will get a fairly early determination from the government, but I want them to get it right. And so, if that means they’ve got to take a little bit more time, so be it.”