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The County Councils Network (CCN) was this week preparing to take its concerns about local government reorganisation direct to Prime Minister Keir Starmer.In a dramatic intervention just weeks after Reform UK gained a relative majority at the network, the CCN's overhauled cross-party leadership has drawn up a draft letter it is looking to send to Starmer and local government secretary Steve Reed.The Reform councillors who are expected to lead Suffolk, Essex and Norfolk CCs have already announced plans for legal action against reorganisation, as has Conservative-led Hampshire CC.However, a senior county source insisted the letter was being planned even before the recent elections, adding: ‘This is about genuine risk to the system. This isn't about us being anti-unitary. It's spelling out the size of the risk and making sure it gets proper ministerial attention.'CCN, which has been engaging members on the final text of the letter, is expected to raise ‘really serious concerns from our senior staff about the capacity of the system to deliver safe and legal services to the timetable proposed' under the Government's reorganisation proposals.The MJ has seen a confidential copy of the draft letter, which is understood to be days away from being finalised.It comes after the Government refused to disclose departmental analysis to justify how ministers concluded they were satisfied their decisions to create 15 unitary councils across four Devolution Priority Programme (DPP) areas could be delivered on a sustainable financial basis.The leaked draft letter read: ‘The departure from the statutory criteria without clear, transparent reasoning and published supporting evidence is deeply troubling and raises serious doubts over the robustness of the decisions taken.‘With new administrations elected in councils across the DPP areas, the Government must immediately disclose the evidence and departmental analysis relating to decisions already taken. It is unreasonable to expect these administrations to respond to the decisions without having the departmental analysis which led to their selection. They, and the wider sector, should have access to this information and evidence necessary to assess the integrity of decisions and the feasibility of implementation.'CCN had already claimed the reorganisation models chosen by ministers across the DPP areas of Essex, Norfolk, Suffolk and Hampshire were ‘clearly at odds with their own criteria'.The draft letter goes further, warning of the ‘significant risks this programme of reform now poses to the delivery of essential services to our residents and most vulnerable communities' and calling for confidence in the process to be ‘restored'.‘Given the unprecedented scale of fragmentation resulting from disaggregation and fundamentally untested nature of boundary change, we strongly question whether ministers have fully and sufficiently evaluated proposals against the public service criterion.‘Having diverted so far from the original aims and underpinning statutory criteria, uncertainty is deepening, confidence is eroding, and the implementation of reorganisation is becoming even more complex, more contested and more costly.'A CCN spokesperson said: ‘We don't comment on leaks, and we are engaging with our members.'

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COUNTY COUNCILS' NETWORK

EXCLUSIVE: Counties to take concerns to top

By EXCLUSIVE by Dan Peters and Joe Lepper | 28 May 2026

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