What can only be described as a challenging week for the government took on a new challenge yesterday morning with a Commons statement from Steve Reed, MHCLG Secretary of State, confirming that “The government is minded to hold the inaugural mayoral elections…in May 2028”, essentially postponing the elections that were planned for next May.
This announcement impacts almost 7.5 million voters across the four new Mayoral Strategic Authorities of Greater Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk, Hampshire & the Solent, and Sussex & Brighton and is the latest twist in the journey of local government reorganisation.
In December 2024, the government published their plans for English devolution and invited councils to request to join the Devolution Priority Programme – the nine successful councils were then fast-tracked into the Devolution Priority Programme and the planned creation of six new Mayoral Strategic Authorities. Those six include the four that have had elections postponed today plus Cheshire & Warrington, and Cumbria, who have already seen their planned 2026 mayoral elections postponed to 2027.
The latest proposed delay is intended to allow time for local government reorganisation and changes to local authorities in each of these areas to take effect, and for preparatory work to allow the new devolution areas to start delivering on priorities and the benefits of devolution on the ground “ahead of the mayors taking office”. With the exact composition of the new unitary local authorities still to be determined in most of these areas, the current timeline is that they will elect their first members to a shadow authority in May 2027, to take over operational control in May 2028.
The functions of local government always seem to be more complex than they should be and the split between county and district responsibilities has long been a source of voter confusion. However, the current process is complicating that structure still further, at least over the next few years. Arguably, the last round of elections was postponed without sufficient consideration, on the basis that change was coming but without a roadmap to what those changes looked like.
What does the election timeline now look like in practice? Well, if you live in a place such as Colchester, Eastleigh or Worthing, you would have voted for your local district-level councillors in May 2024 before voting for your MP in July 2024. You missed out on electing your county councillors in May 2025 because those elections were postponed. In May 2026, you will be able to vote for the usual scheduled round of district council elections and the postponed county council elections but not for the new Strategic Mayor, as that election has now been postponed. In 2027 you will vote for another scheduled round of district councillors plus a new round of councillors to represent you on a new reorganised unitary council (to replace your current councils), although those councils will only sit in a shadow capacity for the first 12 months. Then in May 2028, you will vote for your new Strategic Mayor, and the new unitary local authority will assume responsibility for all local services while the district and county councils will be abolished. You still get to vote seven times in four years, even if two of the polling days have arrived later than expected. Hope you’ve been keeping up! The key question is how many voters will really be keeping up with this and why they are voting for so many different tiers of government?
Every opposition party has been quick to condemn the latest election delay accusing the government of "clinging to power" and “subverting democracy"; amidst polling that puts Reform on track to make significant gains in May, there is a clear political advantage in having as few elections as are absolutely necessary.
Many candidates had already been selected to run for the new Mayoral roles in May and campaigning was already underway across these counties, so there will inevitably be a lot of frustration from local parties and representatives who have pledged to fight the delays and convince the government to change their plans.
A recent example was that when the 2020 London Mayoral Election was postponed for a year because of Covid, prominent candidates Rory Stewart (Independent) and Siobhan Benita (LibDem) both pulled out before the delayed election and we can expect similar churn this time.
The good news today is that the government also announced a new pot of £200 million of annual funding for the new Mayoral Strategic Authorities, with some money being available before they begin to operate. The transitional period of 29 months until those Mayors are elected and take over responsibility leaves some questions around what happens in the meantime and who makes the decisions around preparation and early priorities. While some Mayors have been elected and set up a new structure, the Greater Manchester example had a similar lead time and the former Labour MP and Police Commissioner, Tony Lloyd, was appointed as the Interim Mayor for two years before there was an election and Andy Burnham took on the role. Will we see some form of similar appointment in these counties?
Of course, May 2026 will not be boring and with no shortage of elections around the country (including big ticket events in London, Scotland and Wales) there will be something for all election-watchers, even if around 7.5 million voters will have the chance to head to the polling station probably slightly confused about who or what they are voting for. This is all with the caveat that none of the other scheduled or postponed council elections are postponed again. In the meantime, we can expect lots of opposition attacks and demands to run the elections after all.
If you are struggling to keep on top of mayors, devolution, the LGR proposals, the changes, the delays and the future local government map, get in touch with any of our SEC Newgate UK local team and we'll do our best to help.