Labour to axe 800 councillors and shut down 43 councils in massive local government crackdown

Boundaries of a number of cities, including Ipswich, Norwich, Portsmouth and Southampton, will be expanded in an effort to block so-called "Nimby" (Not In My Back Yard) district councils from blocking new homes.

The radical changes are likely to give an electoral boost to Sir Keir Starmer's party - which is more likely to control the local authorities within the expanded cities.

Shadow Local Government Secretary Sir James Cleverly has warned the move is "outright gerrymandering".

The ex-Tory minister accused Labour of seeking to "shore up its collapsing support" and “engineering council sizes to fit their own partisan political interests, sidestepping the proper process and dodging accountability".

While Reform UK chief Nigel Farage warned that "nobody" in Essex, home to his Clacton seat, had asked for the shake-up.

"The idea that you take the county of Essex, you carve it up into a series of unitaries, you then impose a mayor upon it – nobody here has asked for massive local government change," he told the BBC.

"Nobody here has asked for Essex to have a mayor.

"I think the danger is that you get rid of the county council... and you begin to lose a sense of what Essex as a county is."

Under the current arrangement, county councils oversee transport and social care services, while district councils handle waste collection and routine planning applications.

Essex will see its county council and 12 district councils merged into five new unitary authorities.

Both Norfolk and Suffolk will each have three unitary councils replacing their existing structures and Hampshire's local government will be reorganised into four unitary authorities, according to The Times.

Ministers have criticised the present system as wasteful and argued that removing well-paid senior roles, including chief executives and finance directors, will deliver savings.

Annual cost reductions of around £6million are expected across all four counties combined.

Transport, social care, waste services, and planning functions will all come under single authorities in each area.

The reforms aim to streamline decision-making by consolidating responsibilities currently split between different tiers of local government.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed has described the shake-up as a "once-in-a-generation chance to make sure our councils match the modern realities of our places, making sure outdated boundaries are not constraining growth, particularly in our towns and cities".

He also said that “in too many places, council boundaries are misaligned with the needs of their local communities and how those communities live their lives.”

Just days ago, Chancellor Rachel Reeves warned that the Government's current land use strategy was leaving Britain's young priced out of the housing market and "hemmed in our most dynamic cities”.

The radical overhaul to local governance comes after the Prime Minister was forced to abandon his plan to cancel local elections for 4.5 million voters last month.

The dramatic U-turn came after Reform UK leader Nigel Farage launched legal action against the Government in the High Court.

Labour had approved postponing polls in 30 local authorities, citing the Ministry of Housing & Local Government's drastic restructuring of councils.

Mr Reed previously told GB News: "It's not denying democracy... It's speeding up elections to the new councils that will replace the councils that are being closed down. And I think that is sensible."

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