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This section sets out the six forces shaping the current wave of reform. The right-hand column gives one short external fact demonstrating where existing structures are already under significant strain.
Local Government Reorganisation is presented as one of the Government’s core reforms for strengthening planning, stabilising council finances and creating institutions capable of managing long-term growth.
The drivers behind this shift are political, structural and operational. Understanding them is essential for those preparing for reorganisation or working through its consequences.
Housing and Growth
Government wants planning decisions, infrastructure alignment and spatial strategy held in one place. Two-tier arrangements split responsibility between districts and counties, creating slow decision pathways, misaligned priorities and diffuse accountability.
Reorganisation is the mechanism for creating single points of leadership over planning, transport, education and utilities. New councils need to show that choices about development and investment will be made coherently rather than inherited from separate legacy structures.
Some rural authorities now take over three years to determine certain planning applications, with one averaging 1,372 days for specific cases.
Financial Sustainability
Demand pressures, rising social care costs and long-term funding reductions have pushed several authorities close to effective insolvency. Ministers argue that larger unitaries can manage budgets and financial risk more strategically.
LGR is expected to create councils capable of absorbing shocks, stabilising multi-year financial plans and preventing scenarios like Woking’s collapse. Planning services will operate within tighter financial disciplines and with clearer accountability for delivery.
Buckinghamshire Council delivered £45 million in savings within three years of becoming a unitary authority and must deliver a further £30.4 million this year to maintain a balanced budget.
Lessons from Recent Reorganisations
Experience in Dorset, Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire and Cumbria shows that outcomes depend heavily on early governance decisions. Where digital systems, Member roles and schemes of delegation were clarified quickly, councils stabilised faster.
New authorities must assume disruption unless they design against it. Planning teams inheriting multiple systems, legacy policies and uneven committee structures will face immediate pressure. Councils that imposed governance discipline early avoided the worst turbulence.
An external assurance review of Cumberland Council found early weaknesses in its financial resilience, governance and service delivery.
Structural Complexity and Fragmentation
Multiple districts operating separate committees, systems and policies create duplicated effort and inconsistent decision pathways. In many places, alignment is informal rather than institutional.
Reorganisation is intended to replace these fragmented pathways with single institutional responsibility. If legacy structures are carried forward, complexity will simply be scaled up, with planning teams experiencing uneven validation, inconsistent case management and duplicated governance routes.
In Surrey, strategic services sit with the county council while eleven different district and borough councils continue to run local planning and housing functions.
“Empowered local government, based on unitary councils and strategic authorities, is the foundation for growth across the country – the Government’s number one mission.”
-Alison McGovern MP, Local Government Minister (19 Nov 25)
Governance Improvement
LGR is framed as a governance reform designed to create clearer structures, fewer committees and stronger delegation. Faster decisions, transparency and defensibility sit at the heart of the policy case.
The public, developers and central Government will judge new councils on whether they establish predictable decision pathways, robust schemes of delegation and clear Member roles. Governance failure will translate quickly into planning delay.
Somerset Council has initiated a 12-week emergency action plan to address a mounting backlog of planning applications.
Devolution and Long-Term Reform
The Levelling Up White Paper, published under the previous Government, set out a direction of travel towards larger, strategically scaled local institutions with deeper powers over growth, skills and infrastructure. That branding has now shifted, but the underlying logic has not.
Consolidated councils, combined authorities and mayoral models remain the main vehicles for devolving responsibility away from the centre.
Areas entering LGR are therefore operating in a landscape shaped by a previous administration’s legislation and missions, while a new Government is resetting the language and some of the statutory framework. The current administration has already signalled its intention to repeal Part 1 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act and develop a new framework for regional growth and devolution, but in the interim it must still report against the missions it inherited.
For new unitary councils, the practical point is continuity of direction rather than continuity of branding. Choices now on governance, planning systems, digital infrastructure and accountability will determine whether they are credible partners for whatever replaces “Levelling Up” as the next phase of devolution and investment policy.Fact
The current Government has confirmed it intends to repeal Part 1 of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, but remains legally required to publish an annual Levelling Up Missions report using the framework set by the previous administration while it develops a new policy direction.
LGR is intended to create councils that are financially resilient, politically clear and capable of making faster and more coherent planning decisions. Whether that ambition is achieved depends on the early governance choices that shape committees, delegation, digital systems and legacy integration.
Across this Series we examine how these drivers play out in practice, using Surrey as the primary test case and drawing lessons from Dorset, Northumberland, Somerset and others.
SOURCES
This article draws on Coalface’s practical experience, contributor interviews and publicly available material.
BBC News – reporting on rural planning delays
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-68023315
Buckinghamshire Council – Medium Term Financial Plan and savings data
https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/your-council/budgets-and-spending/medium-term-financial-plan/
https://buckinghamshire.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s61214/
DLUHC – External Assurance Review of Cumberland Council
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cumberland-council-external-assurance-review
Surrey County Council – Overview of county, district and borough responsibilities
https://www.surreycc.gov.uk/council-and-democracy/your-local-area
Somerset Council – Planning service update and recovery plan
https://www.somerset.gov.uk/news/planning-service-update/
North Northamptonshire Council – Local Development Schemes and timetable updates
https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/planning-policy/local-development-scheme
https://www.northnorthants.gov.uk/planning-policy/local-plan-timetable
UK Parliament – Written ministerial statement by the Local Government Minister (19 November 2025)
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2025-11-19/hcws1071
These sources illustrate the governance, financial and planning conditions shaping local government reform.
This page is part of the LGR Governance Series from Coalface. New material is added as further articles and analysis are published.
This article is part of the LGR Governance Series from Coalface. To receive new pieces and supporting material as they are published, subscribe using the button on the right.
If you would like to discuss how these issues affect your organisation, we work with promoters, councils and programme sponsors on specific schemes and wider governance programmes. Please get in touch to talk through what you are working on.