On Thursday 29 October 2026, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published letters from Jim McMahon to leaders in the 15 remaining local government reorganisation areas still waiting for a minded-to decision. The immediate message is procedural rather than substantive: no new minded-to decisions were announced for those 15 areas, and the letters instead set out how the review will now proceed. (gov.uk) This follows the review launched on 7 September 2026, when ministers said they were revisiting the programme after updated legal advice and paused a wider set of decisions. A minded-to decision is the stage at which ministers indicate a provisional preference before taking final decisions, and none of the 15 areas reached that point on 29 October. (gov.uk)
The 15 areas fall into three groups. Nine had July 2026 decisions formally withdrawn on 29 October: Derbyshire and Derby; Devon, Plymouth and Torbay; Hertfordshire; Kent and Medway; Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool; Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland; Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire; Nottinghamshire and Nottingham; and Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The remaining six are the four areas where decisions were already withdrawn in September - Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock; Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton; Norfolk; and Suffolk - plus Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex, where no decision has yet been taken. According to the ministerial letters, all options and proposals in those areas remain under consideration. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
For councils, the more important signal sits in the review outcome itself. In both letters, McMahon says ministers have concluded that the basis of the programme is sound and that the existing criteria used for proposals, first set in February 2025, still support the government’s policy agenda. That means the review has not rewritten the test against which councils are being judged. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) The government paired those holding letters with fresh minded-to decisions in five other areas: East Sussex and Brighton and Hove, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. Read together, the official documents point to a programme that is continuing, but moving at different speeds across England rather than on a single national timetable. (gov.uk)
The next dates now matter more than the absence of a decision on 29 October. The letters say ministers intend to provide outcomes for another set of areas by Christmas 2026, and that every remaining area will have an outcome announced by early 2027. They also state that some places may hear before others. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) That gives council leaders, chief executives and governance teams a clearer planning window, even if it does not settle structure. In practical terms, the period between now and early 2027 remains one of live preparation, local representations and continued discussion between councils and the department. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The election timetable remains unchanged from the September review announcement. According to the government, local elections due in May 2027 in the areas covered by the review will still take place on existing council boundaries; where reorganisation then proceeds, elections to the new councils are planned for May 2028, followed by vesting day on 1 April 2029. (gov.uk) For residents, that removes the prospect of an immediate redraw of the 2027 ballot. For authorities, it extends the period in which existing councils must keep running day-to-day services, budgets and statutory duties while also preparing for the possibility of structural change once ministers have reached final decisions. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
The letters also address cost recovery. Areas where new unitary councils had previously been announced will receive 50 per cent of the £900,000 transition support for each previously announced new unitary, with payment due in the coming weeks regardless of the review outcome. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex, where no earlier decision had been made, will each receive £500,000. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) Once final decisions are taken, the government says it will pay the balance of the £900,000 per new unitary and add £150,000 per new unitary for leadership capacity and continuity across children’s services, adult social care and public health. The practical reading of the Ministry’s update is straightforward: the pause has shifted into staged decision-making, but these 15 areas are still waiting for ministerial conclusions. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)