The minister responsible for council elections has confirmed that almost half of the 63 English polls planned for May will now be postponed.
Local Government Secretary Steve Reed told the House of Commons he had approved delays for 29 councils until 2027, with a final application still under consideration due to being submitted on Thursday morning.
Opposition MPs have criticised the decision, saying delays would potentially disenfranchise millions of voters, but Reed stressed the “vast majority” of elections would still be going ahead.
A major shake-up of local government is underway, which will abolish some authorities, and postponing ballots is intended to help deliver that reorganisation.
The rejig of local government will replace the two-tier system of district and county councils that exists in many parts of England with new ‘unitary’ councils responsible for delivering all councils services in their area.
The government has said some councils were concerned about their capacity to run the polls alongside the overhaul of town halls, as well as the cost to taxpayers of holding elections for councils that are due to be abolished.
There were originally 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May. Of these 63 were eligible to request a postponement, with up to 30 now delayed.
In a statement to the Commons, Reed said he had listened “carefully” to 350 representations about whether the elections should go ahead and confirmed legislation to allow postponement for 29 would now be brought forward.
“I have received one further representation this morning and I will consider, then report back to the House on my decision,” Reed said.
“In all other areas, council elections will go ahead as planned, many having offered no evidence that it would delay reorganisation in their areas.
“This means, of the 136 local elections across England that were scheduled for May, the vast majority will go ahead as planned.”
The delays were needed so the issue of duplication across local government could be tackled, he said, accusing the Conservatives of having “sat back and ignored this problem” for the last 14 years.
Reed said the aim was to save “tens of millions of pounds” of taxpayer money that was currently being wasted by some citizens having to shell out for “two sets of councillors, two sets of chief executives, and two sets of financial directors”.
“We must move at pace to remove the confusion and waste of doubled-up bureaucracy,” he said.
“No-one would ever design a system where one council collects your rubbish but another gets rid of it.”
Most wanting a delay are Labour-led, but three are Conservative-led and one is Liberal Democrat. Some of the councils that have asked for a delay are run by more than one party, or independents.
The decision to postpone elections has been criticised by opposition parties.
Reed’s Conservative counterpart James Cleverly said elections are the cornerstone of democracy, attacking Labour for “moving seamlessly from arrogance to incompetence and now cowardice”.
Reform UK is bringing legal action against the decision.
The Electoral Commission, which oversees elections in the UK, has said delays to council elections in England risk “damaging public confidence” and it did not think “capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections”.
Holding elections this year means some of the councils up for election this year will be folded into new unitary councils in 2027 or 2028, so councillors may only be in office for a year.