What is Local Government Reorganisation for Lancashire?
The government has opted to create four unitary authorities as part of local government reorganisation for Lancashire. This replaces the current 15 councils that cover the county.
The ‘Four Unitary Option A’ creates four council areas – South Lancashire, North Lancashire, East Lancashire and West Lancashire, with names of the new councils still to be confirmed.
Why do we need this change?
Most households in Lancashire currently have two councils, with the services you receive as a council taxpayer split between the two.
Lancashire County Council is responsible for schools, roads, social care and libraries. Your borough council provides bin collections, planning, housing and leisure.
In Ribble Valley constituency, your borough council is either Ribble Valley Borough Council, Preston City Council or South Ribble Borough Council.
Under the reorganisation, all the services your household receives will be provided by one authority. This will result in a more streamlined, efficient system and improved, consistent services. As an example, when housing developments are planned, planning and highways teams will now be able to work much closer together to assess the impact on local roads.
It also means it’s simpler for residents as you’ll have one point of contact for anything you need assistance with.
Why wasn’t I consulted about this?
Residents were consulted. The Labour Party manifesto, on which I and this Government were elected, pledged to encourage local authorities to come together and take on new powers.
Consequently, we set out in the Local Government White Paper in December 2024 our proposals to reorganise existing councils into single-tier ‘unitary authorities’ in the parts of England that have a two-tier system of local government. In February 2025, local authorities were invited to submit proposals for a new pattern of unitary authorities in their areas.
At the end of November 2025, the five options for Local Government Reorganisation in Lancashire were submitted to the government. There was then a seven-week consultation process during February and March 2026, which invited responses from named stakeholders as well as residents, businesses, parish and town councils, and local authorities affected by the proposals.
These responses were taken into account when the government made its decision. You can read more about the findings here: Proposals – Lancashire Local Government Reorganisation
Why is this the best option for Ribble Valley?
The option chosen by the government is the one I backed.
Ribble Valley and Preston joining up with Lancaster makes sense because it gives us an authority that will be half rural and tourism-focused, and half big university city-focused.
Those different geographies have specific needs and opportunities that both deserve good leadership. South Ribble forming a unitary authority with Chorley and West Lancashire makes sense because Chorley and South Ribble councils already share over half of their workforce, and have been working together on services for the past ten years.
It’s important to remember that there will also be extensive cross working between unitary authorities too. The whole of Lancashire has to work together if we’re truly going to unlock potential.
What happens now?
For now, it’s business as usual. There are no immediate changes to services and you should continue to access support in the same way as you do now.
What happens next?
Local elections to the new shadow councils will take place in May 2027. The shadow councillors you elect will then work alongside existing councillors until the new unitary authorities take over completely on 1 April 2028.
What does this mean for the services I receive?
The services you receive will continue as they are for now. Any bigger changes will be determined by the incoming councillors of your new unitary authority, who you’ll be able to vote for in May 2027.
On the whole, this is about who delivers your services, not what services are delivered.
Is this going to be expensive?
Local government reorganisation is about combining two existing levels of local government into one.
This should reduce staffing and salaries and therefore burden on the taxpayer. As an example, Lancashire currently has 15 chief executives of local authorities and after this change it will have four.
Bringing services together will also improve efficiencies by removing any potential duplication and bureaucracy.
How does this affect housing targets?
Housing targets will be combined for each of the four new unitary authorities. Each area currently has a Local Plan, which lays out how land should be used and developed, covering housing, employment, retail, infrastructure and environmental protection.
One of the biggest issues we’ve had locally in recent years is that the local plans are very out-of-date and refreshed ones have taken too long to be introduced. This means that individual planning applications get judged on a case-by-case basis which makes it harder to make a strategic approach and also hard to get proper public engagement.
My hope is that this new local government structure means these new areas will draw up new Local Plans, as a priority, to refresh targets.
What does this mean for our local identity?
Nothing will change in terms of the place you live, this is purely about which authority provides the services you use.
In the Ribble Valley, for example, a lot of work has been done around the Ribble Valley brand, and this will continue, as it will in other areas. Your address won’t change, only the authority you pay council tax to.
How does this relate to devolution?
Local government reorganisation is completely separate to devolution. Lancashire took its first steps towards devolved government with the creation of the Lancashire Combined County Authority in February 2025.
The next step would be to create a Mayoral Strategic Authority (MSA) to give Lancashire additional powers and access to funding.
The effectiveness of a Mayoral Strategic Authority is dependent on the strength of its local authorities.
An MSA provides the strategic direction, uses devolved powers and coordinates investment, it relies on local authorities to deliver services on the ground, provide local intelligence, build new ideas for project and ensure that strategies work for those areas.
The four new unitary authorities pave the way a future Lancashire MSA.
