Future of local government in Sussex

Devolution and local government reorganisation are shaping the future of councils in our county.

Introduction

West Sussex County Council and our partners are at the forefront of plans for historic changes to local government across England.

Work is underway on two separate processes that will shape the future of local authorities and the delivery of services across the county.

Devolution is the transfer of powers and funding from national to local government, specifically to newly created strategic authorities that will be led by a mayor

Local government reorganisation is the process of restructuring local authorities, specifically to move to a single level of councils in areas of England where there are currently two levels, such as West Sussex.

Devolution

The government wants combined authorities to provide strategic leadership on issues including:

housing
highways and transport
economic growth
skills
environment and climate change
health
public safety

This will be for areas of more than 1.5 million people, such as Sussex.

The cabinets of West Sussex County Council and neighbouring East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council agreed a joint bid to be part of the priority programme.

The bid to be on the government’s priority programme was approved in February 2025, which will help to unlock the benefits of devolution for Sussex sooner rather than later.

A government consultation on plans for devolution in Sussex opened in February this year through to April, though the consultation is now closed, you can still read the details.

The government has now agreed to move forward with a Mayoral Combined County Authority (MCCA) and confirmed the first mayoral election will take place on 7 May 2026, according to the government's timeline.

Reorganising local government

At the same time as devolving powers, the government wants to create a single tier of councils in places such as West Sussex where there are currently two tiers.

While a combined mayoral authority with devolved powers would deliver on big, strategic issues, unitary authorities will continue to operate most day-to-day services currently delivered by the county and district and borough councils.

The government’s aim is that areas with a population of around 500,000 people are served by one local council, hence the term ‘unitary authority.’

The leaders of West Sussex County Council and the seven district and borough councils have published a business case in response to the government’s invitation.

It demonstrates that both single and two unitary models are viable options for the future of local government in West Sussex.

Read the case in papers published for an extraordinary meeting of the County Council on Tuesday 23 September.

Councils will submit a letter to central government on 26 September proposing their preferred option for local government in West Sussex.

Once submitted, the government will undertake consultation and a final decision from government is anticipated in Spring 2026.

For a timetable and further information please see the summary update of the local government reorganisation from the Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government.

Additional information

There are currently no changes to local government or the services we deliver.

The government agreed to postpone nine local elections due to be held in May 2025, including here in West Sussex.

We asked for this as part of our bid because we do not believe we would have been able to meet the timetable required of us to deliver mayoral elections in 2026.

In addition, the devolution consultation would have taken place in the run-up to the elections, and councils are not allowed to take part publicly in sensitive matters during the pre-election period.

In outlining its rationale for the decision, the government says it set the bar ‘very high.’