Government abandons plans to delay 30 council elections

The government has abandoned plans to delay 30 council elections in England following legal advice.

Local Government Secretary Steve Reed had approved delays for the ballots until 2027 to help deliver a major reorganisation which will see some local authorities abolished.

Reform UK had launched a legal challenge against the plans to delay May’s elections, which was due to be heard in the High Court on Thursday.

The move was welcomed by opposition parties, who had branded the delays undemocratic.

Reform leader Nigel Farage, writing on X, said: “We took this Labour government to court and won.

“In collusion with the Tories, Keir Starmer tried to stop 4.6 million people voting on May 7th. Only Reform UK fights for democracy.”

The government has agreed to pay Reform’s legal costs relating to the proceedings, which a party source said would be at least £100,000.

In a letter to council leaders, Reed said the government had written to the High Court to confirm he had decided to withdraw the original decision.

The statement said: “The secretary (of) state invited the housing minister, who was not involved in the initial decision-making, to reconsider the position afresh on a very urgent basis recognising the pressing timescales involved.

“The housing minister has decided that the elections should proceed in May 2026.”

Reed said he recognised that many of the councils undergoing reorganisation “voiced genuine concerns about the pressure they are under” as part of the reforms.

He added that the government would provide an extra £63m to the 21 areas affected.

The proposed reforms to local government would replace the two-tier system of district and county councils that exists in many parts of England with new unitary authorities responsible for delivering all councils services in their area.

There were originally 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May.

Of these, 63 were eligible to request a postponement due to local government reorganisation, and in January it was announced that 30 would be delayed.

Polls in five of these areas had already been delayed from May 2025.

The government had previously said some councils were concerned about their capacity to run the polls in May alongside the overhaul of town halls, as well as the cost to taxpayers of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: “Following legal advice, the government has withdrawn its original decision to postpone 30 local elections in May.

“Providing certainty to councils about their local elections is now the most crucial thing and all local elections will now go ahead in May 2026.”

‘Humiliating U-turn’

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey said his party “fought tooth and nail to stop this stitch-up and the government has been forced into a humiliating U-turn”.

He added: “We cannot allow the government to cancel elections on a whim ever again.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch said it was “predictable chaos from a useless government that cannot make basic decisions”.

She said her party had opposed the “unnecessary cancellations at every opportunity”, writing on X: “This is the right decision.

“A one-year delay to allow new councils to be re-organised is one thing. Two years was always too much.”

Green Party leader Zack Polanski said he was “pleased the government has done another U-turn”, describing the attempt to delay elections as “part of a disturbing authoritarian trend of this caretaker prime minister”.

Out of the councils that had originally been given permission to delay their elections, 15 were Labour-controlled, while four were led by the Conservatives, one by the Liberal Democrats and 10 were under no overall control.

Here is the full list of councils where elections were due to be postponed but will now take place:

Blackburn with Darwen Council

Cannock Chase District Council

Cheltenham Borough Council

East Sussex County Council

Peterborough City Council

Stevenage Borough Council

Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council

West Lancashire Borough Council

West Sussex County Council