Districts face abolition because of the Government's reorganisation policy, but retain their full functions until then, including conducting community governance reviews. The consent regime under the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 will apply before reorganisation but is not an absolute bar: if necessary, consent can be obtained from the successor council. Many reorganised areas have realised the necessity of creating parish councils for cities and towns that would otherwise lack any truly local government body – think Shrewsbury, Hereford and Barrow-in-Furness.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Local Government Association's recent aide mémoire about risks identified ‘requests to establish new town or parish councils [becoming] a distraction' from work on implementing reorganisation.
