England's district council shake up - how will councils change and will your council be affected?

Angela Rayner outlined plans for a major redesign of local government today. The Deputy Prime Minister wants to give everyone a directly elected mayor and incorporate district councils into wider authorities.

England’s local government system is currently based on a mix of district councils, county councils and unitary authorities, each serving different needs within their areas. At present, only half of the population of England has an elected mayor. Today, Rayner announced that she intends to change this and prioritise devolution. The government will announce the parts of the country it is prioritising soon, aiming for mayoral elections in these areas by May 2026.

Rayner has argued that giving more powers to regional mayors could boost the economy and productivity within councils.

A directly elected mayor would have a clear mandate from the public, allowing for more decisive actions on key issues. Advocates also argue that it would provide better representation as they could advocate for their region’s interests on both national and regional stages. Through their mandate, they would have significantly more power, which could create real change in a system that is largely centralised. This would make local areas less reliant on decisions from Westminster and able to choose policies that best suit their specific concerns.

But with this increased power and authority comes a level of concern - centralising power to one individual may result in less democratic local councils. In areas where smaller local communities have been combined alongside larger urban areas, specific issues may be overlooked in order to benefit the larger areas. There may also be a rise in populism, where mayors seek to be popular political figures, rather than enforcing meaningful change through more tough policies. This would politicise the process too, turning councils into mini general elections based on the national stage - rather than local issues.

Rayner also seeks to combine many district and county councils into one unitary authority. A unitary authority is a single-tier local government structure that takes on all the functions previously handled by both district and county councils.

Currently district councils handle day-to-day services such as waste collection, housing and local planning. These councils tend to have a closer connection to local communities.

County councils manage broader responsibilities including education, transport and social services, often working alongside district councils in a two-tier system.

Opting for unitary authorities would simplify governance by combining the roles of both tiers into one organisation. This structure already exists in several areas like Leeds, Manchester and Bristol with relative success.

There are a number of councils that would be restructured into a unitary authority through this change:

• West Sussex
• Cumbria( Already in the process of re organising)
• North Yorkshire (Already in the process of re organising)
• Lancashire
• Kent
• Essex
• Hertfordshire
• Leicestershire
• Warwickshire
• Oxfordshire
• Staffordshire
• Gloucestershire
• Shropshire
• Buckinghamshire
• Surrey
• Cheshire (part of Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester)

Around half of councils do not currently have an elected mayor. These councils either operate under a leader and cabinet system or have a ceremonial mayor without executive powers. If Rayner enforces an elected mayor in all councils this would change the structure in:

• Bristol (previously had an elected mayor, but abolished in 2022)
• Manchester
• Liverpool
• Newcastle upon Tyne
• Sheffield
• Leeds
• Birmingham
• Coventry
• Nottingham
• Wakefield
• Stockport
• Redbridge
• Hammersmith and Fulham
• Luton
• Wolverhampton
• Southampton
• Cambridge
• Oxford
• Kingston upon Thames
• Sunderland
• Barnsley
• Doncaster
• Bradford
• Hartlepool
• Waltham Forest
• Middlesbrough
• Rotherham
• Poole
• Slough
• Swindon
• Dudley
• Woking
• Blackpool
• Basingstoke and Deane

Merging district and county councils would create a single streamlined council with control over both local and larger services. This could create greater efficiency - avoiding the red tape and saving in administration. It would also create a simplified service for residents, allowing them to effectively contact their local councils without confusion.

But critics argue that any change to a long standing structure is likely to cause turmoil for the first few months, which would only add to the strain that councils are already under. Though this process would seek to simplify decision making, it may also lead to conflicts between councils that could delay decision making even further.

The current system is great at utilising connections between local residents and their councils. These new “mega councils” could undermine devolution by stripping powers away from local communities. In North Yorkshire, where district councils have already been abolished, residents of Selby now face a nearly 50-mile journey to the county’s headquarters in Northallerton. This could soon be the case for many smaller communities within a unitary system.