More than half of councils due to hold elections in May have asked to postpone them, it was revealed today (file picture)

Responding to an urgent question in the Commons, local government minister Jim McMahon said requests would not necessarily be granted

Responding to an urgent question in the Commons, local government minister Jim McMahon said: ‘Where local elections are postponed, we’ll work with local areas to move elections to a new shadow unitary council as soon as possible. This is a very high bar, and rightly so.’

He added: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, this is a list of requests, it’s not the final list that will be approved.

‘We will consider carefully these requests and only postpone elections where there is a clear commitment to delivering both reorganisation and devolution to the ambitious timetable set out.

‘While not all areas listed will go forward to be part of the devolution priority programme, we are grateful for the local leadership shown in submitting these requests and a decision will be made in due course as soon as possible.’

Shadow communities minister David Simmonds said it is ‘not surprising’ many councils have requested a delay given the costs of arranging elections.

He said: ‘There remains significant uncertainty about where and if those elections will be delayed.

‘And with deadlines looming for key points in the organisation in those elections, that uncertainty risks some wasted costs for council taxpayers.’

Liberal Democrat local government spokeswoman Vikki Slade said there is ‘no doubt’ local government needs ‘significant reform’, although she voiced concerns that the Government’s plans will result in a ‘top-down diktat from Whitehall’.

She said MPs and district councillors from some areas, including Devon, Surrey and the Midlands, have told her that submissions appear to have been made without their district councils being ‘involved or consulted’.

Ms Slade, who remains a councillor in the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council area after previously leading the authority, said all elections due in May 2025 should ‘go ahead’ as the reorganisation plans ‘will take more than a year’.

Her Liberal Democrat colleague Mike Martin, the MP for Tunbridge Wells, claimed ‘turkeys don’t vote for Christmas’, in reference to a possible election dent in the Tories’ majority – 59 out of 81 county council seats – across Kent.

‘If it is stretched out like that, we’ll have Conservative Kent county councillors in power for seven years which, judging by my inbox, the people of Kent are absolutely appalled about,’ he said.

Mr McMahon replied that it was not the Government’s ‘job to get involved in politics as to whether the Liberal Democrats want to see the back of the Tories or the Tories want to avoid an election or vice-versa’.

Rupert Lowe, the Reform UK MP for Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, also objected to local election delays and used the American Revolution-era slogan ‘no taxation without representation’.

He asked: ‘Why should they continue to pay council tax, their council tax beyond May when they will not be represented by elected people? And the second question is by what name do they call these unelected councillors after May?’

The minister said council members will have been voted in at past elections.

‘They were elected but we might take the view, if they meet the criteria, that their period of office should be extended to allow election to a new shadow unitary authority,’ he said.

Brexiteer Mark Francois said he would ‘gladly vote remain’ if the Government agreed to a referendum over whether to split up Essex County Council and other authorities in the county.

The Conservative MP for Rayleigh and Wickford asked: ‘Why don’t we take the opportunity to have a county-wide referendum in Essex to see whether the public – the county taxpayers – really do support this?’

He added: ‘If there is such a referendum – and I never thought these words would pass my lips – I would gladly vote remain.’

Mr McMahon replied: ‘There will be a range of views on this, but from the Government’s perspective, it’s our job to give direction and we do believe that efficiencies can be drawn out.

‘And when asked, I think local people would say they would much rather that local neighbourhood services are maintained and grown, rather than the overhead costs existing for the sake of existing.’

The local government overhaul was unveiled by Angela Rayner, pictured

Several MPs urged the minister to say how the Government plans to deal with billions of pounds of council funding shortfalls, including in Thurrock – an area of southern Essex where the unitary authority declared effective bankruptcy after finding £469 million of pressure in its 2022-23 budget – and Woking in Surrey – where the borough council had a £1.2 billion hole in its budget caused by ‘extreme’ high levels of borrowing.

Mr McMahon said: ‘Agreeing to write off two billion pound of debt on the despatch box would be quite career-limiting, I would say.

‘What I can say is that the scale of the financial challenge in some areas is absolutely understood and we are going to work to try and find a solution, but we are not at the point yet of announcing that.’