For over a year, councils across the country have been drawing up plans to simplify how local government is organised. In Hertfordshire, proposals submitted by the council authorities are currently being examined by Westminster. As part of the process, the Government has launched an open consultation, closing on 26 March, for local residents to voice their opinions. Read on for an explanation of LGR and how to have your say.
What is Local Government Reorganisation?
Local Government Reorganisation (LGR), first announced by the Labour government in December 2024, will profoundly remodel the way that council services throughout England are administered.
LGR is not quite the same as devolution, but devolution will form part of the Government’s LGR plans. Where devolution involves handing over certain powers and funding from national to local government, LGR is the process by which the structure of local authorities is reconfigured and responsibilities shared out among council bodies.
Much of England’s population is governed at a local level by a two-tier system, in which services and responsibilities are divided between an overarching county council, and a number of district and borough councils below. In a bid to speed up decision making and delivery, and make accountability for decisions clearer, LGR will replace two-tiered systems with single-tiered unitary structures.
At the same time further powers will be devolved from central government to directly elected mayors. The new single-tiered unitary council will deliver all services currently provided by the two separate types of council.
In February 2025, the government invited all councils in two-tier areas to develop blueprints for a unitary reconfiguration of local government. All 21 invited areas responded, and councils began drawing up proposals that were submitted over the course of 2025.
LGR in Hertfordshire
Hertfordshire is currently served by a two-tier local government structure. The county council is responsible for services including social care, libraries, education and roads. Underneath this top tier, ten district and borough councils are responsible for services such as housing, planning, waste collection and leisure services.
Under LGR, all upper and lower councils will be replaced by single, unitary authorities, responsible for all local government services. Over the past year, councils have been conducting surveys and debates in order to establish what pattern of single-tiered authorities would best serve their area.
However Hertfordshire decides to geographically reorganise the county’s internal boundaries, the resultant unitary system will deliver all council services.
What are Hertfordshire’s proposals?
On 28 November 2025, all 11 of Hertfordshire’s councils jointly submitted their final LGR proposal to the Government. In it, they agreed to rule out the prospect of a single unitary council representing the county’s 1.2 million residents, on the basis that such a body would lack local responsiveness and accountability.
After considering feedback taken from local residents during an initial public engagement drive in September 2025, the joint report puts forward three different options: two, three or four unitary councils. They vary in terms of geography, population and approach to services. The final report allowed each of the 11 councils to signal which option they officially support.
The council’s Proposed Options page lists the three options currently being considered. The three maps on the page, together with boxed lists of place names, show clearly the areas involved in each case, and a note by the third option mentions potential boundary changes.
The first option, supported by Hertfordshire County Council and St Albans City and District Council, proposes two unitary councils, each covering around 600,000 residents.
The second, supported by East Hertfordshire District Council, Three Rivers District Council and Watford Borough Council proposes three unitary councils. Each would serve a population ranging from 350,000 to 480,000.
The third and final option, supported by the remaining Broxbourne Borough Council, Dacorum Borough Council, Hertsmere Borough Council, North Hertfordshire District Council, Stevenage Borough Council and Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council proposes four unitary councils. Each new unitary council would serve between 290,000 to 320,000 residents.
Have your say by 26 March
The Government has launched a statutory consultation for Hertfordshire in order to seek views on the proposals for LGR. Respondents are being given a valuable opportunity to voice their opinions on each of the three options and contribute views, critiques and ideas.
Consultations are also open for 14 other council areas undergoing LGR across England, including Cambridgeshire and Peterborough. Consultations have closed for LGR in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, but you can keep up to date with developments in these areas via the links.
The consultation survey for Hertfordshire can be completed online. Alternatively, residents can respond via email or written correspondence. All relevant details for these formats can be found on the Government’s dedicated consultation website. The consultation closes on 26 March 2026 at 11:59pm.
What happens next?
A Government decision is expected in summer 2026 on which unitary option, if any, is to be pursued in Hertfordshire and each of the 14 areas currently under consultation.
From then, elections for the new unitary authorities are expected to take place in May 2027. Those elected will not assume power immediately, but will wait until a vesting day, currently set for spring 2028. On this day, the new unitary authority(s) – in whichever configuration they have been agreed – will officially take over and exercise all the powers and responsibilities of the current council bodies.
Local elections in May
In December, the government announced that elections due in May this year for some of the existing councils and mayoral positions across England, including in Suffolk, Norfolk and parts of Essex, might be postponed until 2028. The rationale was that electing new mayors and councils at the same time as the new single-tiered authorities were due to take place – in spring 2028 – would be more efficient, since electing new councillors now would waste time and money given that these authorities are going to be abolished in two years.
However, following a challenge from Reform UK, the Government recently announced that all elections originally due this May will take place. This decision has caused concern for councillors who will now have to quickly launch and fight a local election campaign. The timetable for LGR could well be delayed while elections take place, and the prospect that new council administrations might try to renegotiate the terms of LGR and devolution in their area might cause further delay to plans, or even derail them altogether.
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