New mayoral elections to be delayed in four areas of England

Elections for newly-created mayors will be delayed in four more areas of England, the BBC has confirmed, pushing back regional devolution plans.

New mayors were expected to be elected in Greater Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk, Hampshire & the Solent, and Sussex & Brighton in May next year, but will now have to wait until May 2028.

The government is arguing that more time is needed to reorganise local government in these areas, but stressed more homes, better high streets and support for business were "all on the way".

But opposition parties are calling for the elections to go ahead as planned, with shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly accusing Labour of "subverting democracy".

Speaking to broadcasters in Scotland, Sir Keir Starmer was asked if the delays were effectively cancelling democracy.

He responded: "No, there are various arrangements being put in place to ensure all the elections could take place at the right time, depending on the configurations of the council and other arrangements."

The new mayors are part of a simplification of local government, aimed at reducing the number of councils, by merging district and county authorities to create unitary authorities.

Groups of unitary authorities will be headed up by new mayors, who will be handed more funding and extra powers to run their area, intended to hand greater power to local communities.

However, the body representing district councils warned at the time that the plans could spark "turmoil" and argued "mega-councils" could undermine local decision-making.

Earlier this year, 18 councils requested a delay to their planned May elections due to incomplete reorganisation into eight unitary authorities - and critics are concerned the announcement of delays to mayoral elections could lead to further elections being cancelled.

In an urgent Commons question on the mayoral election delays, Conservative MP and shadow local government minister David Simmonds, said the decision had caused "a huge waste of public money for elections we are all ready for".

In light of the mayoral delay, Simmonds asked whether council elections planned for next May could also be delayed.

"Elections are happening in 2026, we are cracking on with it," Devolution Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh replied, insisting "we have been absolutely consistent" on local elections.

She added: "As a responsible government you would expect that if there were extenuating circumstances on the ground, in particular councils, we will have that conversation with them -- but we are as up for elections as anyone else."

On mayoral elections, she said it was "absolutely right" for the government to "take stock" of how far along in the process of reorganisation areas were but, "huge progress" had already been made on establishing the new authorities.

However, former local government minister, Jim McMahon, criticised his own government saying they needed to "be better".

Also in the Commons, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage branded the reorganisation "a dog's dinner" that the public "don't understand".

"You're telling them you're going to get rid of a district council that they know and understand and respect and replace it with a pretty amorphous unitary authority," he said.

"So if that is going to go ahead, clearly it is - I don't like it, but clearly it is - you need a senior elected figure and we need a mayor."

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said it is a "scandal" that local elections are being delayed when she was asked on a visit to a school in London.

The "excuse that it's about local government reorganisations doesn't wash", she told broadcasters, adding the government has had "plenty of time to do this" and people "need their democracy".

Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat local government spokesperson Zoe Franklin said the party would work to see the vote next May does go ahead, adding, "democracy delayed is democracy denied".

And the Conservative candidate for Hampshire and the Solent called the decision to delay them a "disgrace and an affront to democracy".

"It is clear Labour are afraid to face the British public at the ballot box," Donna Jones said.

Green Party deputy leader and mayoral candidate for Sussex & Brighton, Rachel Millward, said people had the right to vote for mayors the government has promised them.

"Labour's whole devolution agenda has fallen into utter chaos," she said.

"They're running scared of the voters and failing to solve the real problems in local government."

• Cheshire and Warrington Combined Authority: £21.7m per year
• Cumbria Combined Authority: £11.1m per year
• Greater Essex Combined County Authority: £41.5m per year
• Hampshire and the Solent Combined County Authority: £44.6m per year
• Norfolk and Suffolk Combined County Authority: £37.4m per year
• Sussex and Brighton Combined County Authority: £38m per year

Source: MHCLG

Back in February, then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced "ambitious" plans for six new areas of regional devolution, where councils would join forces to create combined authorities, led by new mayors.

The new Devolution Priority Programme areas were intended to provide "sweeping" powers for councils to fast-track growth in regions outside London and, at the time, the government said the new positions would be created "at pace", within a year.

Now, all six of those new devolution priority programme (DPP) areas have announced they will delay their mayoral elections, originally planned for May 2026.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced the first mayoral election in Cumbria had been pushed back a year in July, with councils saying combining the mayoral with planned local elections in 2027 would "save significant resources".

Cheshire & Warrington followed suit in September, pushing back its first mayoral election from to May 2027 to fit in with full council elections being held at the same time.

An MCHLG spokesperson said unitary authorities are now in place in Cumbria and Cheshire and Warrington, which they said would "create simpler, more effective structures that can better support mayors' powers".

This will allow them to hold their inaugural mayoral elections in May 2027 and ministers are working with both areas to bring forward the legislation to create their mayoral authorities.

The remaining four areas were still on track to establish "stronger" unitary authorities in 2028, they said, before the inaugural mayoral elections are held in May 2028.

Fahnbulleh stressed that work was continuing behind the scenes to ensure that almost £200m each year could be shared by the six areas over the next 30 years for local priorities in areas like transport, planning and skills.

The MCHLG has announced that all six areas will get an additional £1m in the coming months, to help with the costs of establishing the new mayoral authorities, and will share £3m each as a minimum over the next three financial years.

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