Reform Lancashire: Government Pause Proves Warnings Were Right All Along

Lancashire Reorganisation Plans Paused

The Government has today announced a review of its Local Government Reorganisation programme, pausing plans across the country — including Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool.

The Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, has confirmed to Parliament that decisions already taken in Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk have been withdrawn following updated legal advice. A further 14 areas, Lancashire among them, will be reviewed and paused, alongside Cambridgeshire & Peterborough and West Sussex. Local elections in May 2027 will now go ahead on existing council boundaries. Only Surrey, where the new authorities are already established in law, is unaffected.

This has cost millions of pounds, created uncertainty for staff and residents, risked disruption to essential services, left vulnerable people exposed, and wasted taxpayers’ money.

Reform UK Leader Nigel Farage MP said:

^{"Reform UK not only argued that this government's plans for local government reorganisation were an unmitigated disaster, but we once again put our money where our mouth is.}

^{"Earlier this year we took on the government and forced them to give the vote back to millions of people after Labour tried to cancel democracy. Now, thanks to our judicial reviews in affected Reform-led councils, the government has backed down on their plans yet again.}

^{"Only Reform had the backbone to stand up to these reckless plans. This is yet another embarrassing defeat for Labour. Only Reform backs real democracy."}

Reform-led Lancashire County Council warned ministers this was coming.

In a letter to the then Secretary of State on 20 February, attached in full to this release — Councillor Stephen Atkinson, Leader of Lancashire County Council and Reform UK Group Leader at the Local Government Association, set out in detail the risks of the programme's pace and sequencing.

That letter warned that around twenty areas were being asked to reorganise in a single programme cycle, affecting twenty million residents on a single day in 2028. It noted that Paul Rowsell, who led previous waves of reorganisation inside the Department itself, had advised Lancashire leaders that only around three reorganisations a year could realistically be managed safely.

It warned that this was being attempted while SEND, adult social care and children's social care had to continue without disruption, and that rushed or poorly sequenced change is how vulnerable children and adults fall through gaps in accountability.

And it asked the Government to do three things: publish its risk assessment in full, confirm whether the timetable would hold, and publish the legal advice it was relying on.

None of those three requests was granted. Six months later, ministers have paused the entire programme, again on the basis of legal advice; they will not publish.

It was also Reform UK's High Court challenge that forced the Government to abandon its postponement of local elections, and today's announcement confirms once more that elections must proceed.

Councillor Stephen Atkinson, Leader of Lancashire County Council and Reform UK Group Leader at the Local Government Association, said:

^{"We told the Government in February that this programme was moving too fast, that the sequencing was wrong and that the risks to vulnerable people were being underestimated. We asked them to publish their risk assessment and be straight with councils about the timetable. They refused.}

^{"Today ministers have paused the whole programme. That is an admission that the concerns raised by councils were legitimate all along, and it comes only after months of officer time and public money have been spent preparing for a reorganisation that may now change fundamentally.}

^{"I welcome the fact that ministers are finally applying proper judgement to sequencing. But a pause is not a plan. Councils, staff and residents need to know what happens next, and they need it quickly.}

^{"The Government should now do what we asked it to do in February: publish the risk assessment, publish the legal advice, and set out a realistic timetable that puts the safe transition of services for vulnerable children and adults ahead of a Westminster deadline."}

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‍Notes to editors:

• Attached: letter from Councillor Stephen Atkinson to the Rt Hon Steve Reed OBE MP, Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, 20 February 2026, "Sequencing and Risk in the Local Government Reorganisation Programme".
• Lancashire, Blackburn with Darwen and Blackpool form one of the 14 tranche 3 areas included in the Government's internal review.