The Government's current plans could see the number of English local authorities reduced by 2029, to around 100 (with an average size approaching 500,000). It is a very similar process to the indiscriminate dismantling of the rail network resulting from the 1963 Beeching Report which deprived the system of more than a third of its operating routes and stations over less than eight years.
The local government reorganisation (LGR) of 2024-29 may take longer to achieve, given opposition to the proposals across some of the political spectrum. We predict however, that it will happen. The Ministry of Communities, Housing and Local Government (MHCLG) and the compliant ministers incorporated by it (with the honourable exception of Eric Pickles between 2010 and 2015) are not giving up on 30 years (and more) of commitment to their ‘bigger is better'/ large unitary authority agenda.
