Devon County Council’s plan to postpone the May 2025 local elections has failed alongside its application to join the government’s fast-track devolution priority programme. Secretary of State Angela Rayner announced the decision in a House of Commons statement today.
County council leader James McInnes wrote to the government to apply to join the fast-track devolution priority programme on 10 January despite Devon falling short of the programme eligibility criteria set out in the English devolution white paper published in December.
He also asked the government to postpone the May 2025 Devon County Council elections – which would have extended his term of office by twelve months – despite Devon also failing to meet the elections postponement criteria.
The county council said that postponing the elections would be “unlikely to negatively impact any community group” and would be “more likely to be less confusing for people who may experience difficulties with periods of unsettlement and change, or making arrangements to vote” but did not offer any evidence to support either claim.
Devon County Council leader James McInnes. Photo: Devon County Council.
The government’s decision comes as criticism mounts in response to its plans to replace district councils with much larger unitary authorities covering populations of 500,000 or more under remote regional mayoral strategic authorities.
A District Councils Network survey has found that while nearly 80% of more than a hundred local councils that responded are not opposed to reorganisation in principle, only 15% thought that a unitary council covering a population of more than 500,000 would be suitable in their areas.
District Councils Network chair Sam Chapman-Allen said: “District councils overwhelmingly believe that new unitary councils should remain close to communities and be smaller than the mega councils proposed in the English devolution white paper.
“Being close to communities ensures councils can truly understand the challenges faced by local people and businesses and can deliver localised solutions to support them.”
He added: “It’s essential that these attributes are retained by new councils if we are not to diminish local government and essential public services.”
The government has since admitted that there is no publicly-available analysis to support the 500,000 population unitary threshold it set out in the white paper.
It has also confirmed that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has not performed a post-implementation assessment of the costs of the recent creation of new unitary authorities in North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Somerset.
When Somerset Council was created to replace the county council and four district councils in 2023 it became England’s second largest unitary authority, with a population of 581,000.
It was expected to save £18.5 million a year as a result, but declared a “financial emergency” six months after its formation, projecting an overspend of £27 million that year and a deficit of £100 million the following year.
Its leader Bill Revans has now said that two-tier areas such as Devon need to “think very carefully” about whether the claimed benefits of local government reorganisation actually “stack up”.
He added that he “can’t imagine” how other areas could reorganise at the pace set by the government devolution timetable.
