Stroud District Council leader Chloe Turner has condemned the Government’s local government reorganisation process as “an absolute shambles” after ministers unexpectedly paused plans for a major restructuring of local government across England.
Gloucestershire is one of 14 areas where the reorganisation process, known as local government reorganisation or LGR, has been put on hold while the Government carries out a review. The pause follows updated legal advice provided to ministers, with councils now waiting for further information about what happens to proposals affecting the county.
The announcement has created fresh uncertainty for Stroud District Council and other councils in Gloucestershire. The district council said the decision was unexpected and would prompt questions from stakeholders across the county, including councils and communities affected by the proposed changes.
Why the Gloucestershire plans have been paused
The Government has said the review is intended to ensure that the reorganisation process is robust, complies with legal requirements and fits with the priorities of the new administration’s wider plans for devolution and local government reform.
At the time of the announcement, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government was expected to make a statement to the House of Commons later that day. Stroud District Council said Gloucestershire’s councils were seeking more information while they waited for that announcement.
The council also said leaders and senior leadership teams at Gloucestershire’s principal councils were expected to receive a briefing from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government within the next 24 hours. A further statement was due after that briefing, but there was no detail yet about the implications for Gloucestershire or how long the review would take.
The Government is also expected to confirm that local elections scheduled for May 2027 will go ahead on existing council boundaries while the review is carried out. That means the election arrangements will remain based on the current boundaries during the review period, according to the council’s account of the Government’s position.
Turner says councils have already paid a price
Cllr Turner, who leads Stroud District Council and the council’s Green group, said the reorganisation programme had taken attention away from the immediate work of protecting and improving local services.
“What an absolute shambles.”
She said the plans had been presented as a way of changing local government and devolving power, but argued that they were instead about cost-cutting, removing power and representation from communities, with those communities then expected to pay for the changes.
Turner said councils should have been using their time and resources to revive local services, restore public trust and create the financial and organisational capacity to respond to the climate and nature emergency. She said successive ministers had not listened to concerns raised by Greens about the programme.
Despite her opposition to the proposals, Turner said Stroud District Council had continued working to deliver what it considered the best possible version of the changes for residents. She said councils around the country had committed large amounts of time, money and resources to preparing for reorganisation.
According to Turner, some councils had put other important plans on hold, created new parishes, devolved assets and reorganised teams and service lines in anticipation of the proposed changes. She also said council officers had made decisions about their lives and careers based on the expectation that the reforms would proceed.
“And now it is all up in the air again.”
Her comments highlight the practical consequences of the pause for councils that have already reorganised work, committed resources or made decisions based on the planned changes. The source does not give a figure for the money spent by Stroud District Council or other authorities, but says the resources involved have been significant.
Calls for repayment and a new funding settlement
Turner said she would be relieved if the scheme were shelved and local government remained genuinely local. However, she warned that communities should not be left to pay for the uncertainty created by the Government’s changing position.
She called for councils to be reimbursed for money already spent preparing for reorganisation. She also demanded a new funding settlement after what she described as cuts to council budgets through the Business Rates Reset and the Fair Funding Review.
Another demand was a guarantee that areas without a mayor would not be disadvantaged when devolved powers and funding are allocated. Turner specifically identified transport, economic development and climate action as areas where she wants assurances that Gloucestershire will not lose out because it does not have a mayor.
She also said the county needed clarity about what the latest announcement meant for questions surrounding the proposed mayoral area and spatial planning in Gloucestershire. In particular, she said councils and communities needed to know where future housing and economic growth would be located.
“Yet again, we wait – and hope that this time our communities’ needs will actually be listened to.”
What happens next
Stroud District Council said councils in Gloucestershire were awaiting further information from the Government before they could assess the effect of the pause on the county’s proposals. The council said the review timetable and its implications for Gloucestershire were not yet known.
The next expected steps were the Secretary of State’s statement to Parliament, a briefing for leaders and senior leadership teams from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, and a further statement from the Gloucestershire councils after receiving that information.
Until the review is completed, the Government’s plans remain paused. The source does not state whether the proposed reorganisation will ultimately proceed, be changed or be abandoned.
