Opinion: Local Government Reorganisation – How and Why Did It Happen Like This?

Published on: 5 May, 2026
Updated on: 5 May, 2026

Cllr Pat Oven

Patrick Oven

borough councillor for Send & Lovelace and Guildford Greenbelt Group leader

Last year, the current Surrey County councillors had reached the end of their four – year period of elected office. In the normal course of events, elections would have been held for those who wished to offer themselves for re-election and any new candidates who wished to put themselves forward. But the due elections did not take place.

The existing councillors were given a further (unelected), year in office, so that Surrey could prepare itself to move to the Government’s preferred local government model – unitary authorities.

These are to replace the two tier (county and district or borough councils), model that has existed since 1974.

A poster advertising a public meeting on local government reorganisation last year (2025).

The elections on Thursday though will not be to enable a new authority to take over immediately. Whilst the county councillors had their terms unilaterally and undemocratically extended last year, the existing councillors at borough and district level still have a year of their term to run.

One has to wonder whether central government would have prefered to cancel their remaining term so that the new authorities could have taken power immediately. Probably even for central government that would have been a step too far, however tempting!

However we’ll park that. The reality is that the new unitary councillors will form a “shadow authority” until they take office on April 1 next year. In the meantime, the existing councillors and councils will continue to operate.

However they cannot make major expenditure commitments without the consent of the new shadow authority. Likewise, the shadow authority cannot commit to substantial expenditure without the consent of the existing authority. A recipe for co-operation – or chaos? We shall have to see.

I am reminded of the Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times….!

Let me make clear at the outset: I have nothing in principle against this change. To have all powers consolidated in one council makes a lot of sense. There will no longer be any confusion as to whether a particular issue is the responsibility of the county or the borough/district council. No more potential buck passing where it is unclear whether an issue is the responsibility of one or the other tier of authority. There will be no-one to pass the buck to.

But how this is being achieved, especially in Surrey, is another matter entirely.

The elections on Thursday are to elect two unitary authorities, one for East and one for West Surrey. Eleven district and boroughs and the county authority will be reduced to two mega authorities to cover the whole county.

As an illustration, in the new West Surrey unitary, Haslemere in the extreme south, will be in the same authority as Ashford on the borders of West London. Alarm bells ringing yet? They should be!

How did we get to this situation? You may well ask.

How indeed.

Tomorrow, Patrick Oven explores factors affecting the reorganisation and the choice between two and three unitaries for Surrey.