What next for Staffordshire after pause to council shake-up?

Plans to shake up local government have been put on hold, two months on from the news that Staffordshire's councils would be scrapped and replaced with two new super authorities.

This means local elections in May 2027 will go ahead on existing council boundaries, as opposed to a shadow election for the new authorities.

The pause comes as ministers confirm they will review local government reorganisation "in light of legal advice", with Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner telling MPs she wanted to "fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of a new administration and a new prime minister".

But how has the change of gear gone down away from Westminster, where work was under way to form North Staffordshire and South and Mid Staffordshire councils to run all services in their respective halves of the county? A range of key questions also remain, and include....

The proposal for a North Staffordshire council, which included Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Staffordshire Moorlands, wasn't a popular decision for many living in the latter.

While there's been various petitions and protests opposing the move, the Labour leader of Staffordshire Moorlands District Council Mike Gledhill supported it and told BBC Radio Stoke he believed that despite the review, the proposed shake-up would still happen.

"The review will be quick, it will happen and the pause will be short, the delay is worth it to get it right," he said.

Conservative MP for Staffordshire Moorlands, Karen Bradley, said she was "delighted" the government was reviewing reorganisation, adding she had "repeatedly" raised concerns about proposals.

Meanwhile, the Reform leader of Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, Jonathan Gullis, said he believed the review meant that reorganisation would be "kicked down the road" and "won't see the light of day".

Gullis added that the process had been a "farce" and the pause was a major moment for his area and "vindicates the decision to fight this deeply flawed reorganisation from the beginning".

Adam Joggee, Labour MP for the Newcastle-under-Lyme constituency, has described the proposed north/south divide for the county as "unacceptable" and says he is grateful for the review.

In the Commons, Joggee asked the secretary of state about the "focus on establishing the new mayoral authorities, which will provide the comprehensive cross-party, cross-community support that we need when it comes to changes of this scale".

The leader of Staffordshire County Council, Reform's Martin Murray, said in a statement the delay was an "eleventh hour decision by government", and to pause now 2wastes time, drains capacity and undermines confidence".

As it stands, there will be no elections for the proposed unitary authorities next year, with local elections for authorities they were meant to replace - Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Staffordshire Moorlands District Council and Stafford Borough Council - now set to go ahead in May 2027.

That's some way off what was envisaged in late 2024 when plans were announced to move towards unitary councils across all of England, with council boundaries redrawn and smaller district councils abolished.

The government argued the such a change would make the system simpler and produce savings by making the delivery of services more efficient, while also handing new powers from Westminster to regions across the country.

Rayner acknowledged on Monday the announcement to pause the project was "disappointing" but insisted the government was "determined more than ever to devolve power closer to the people we represent" - a key priority of new PM Andy Burnham.

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