Publish council changes legal advice, MPs say

MPs and councillors in Surrey say there are questions to answer after ministers put a major shake-up of local councils on hold.

The government said it had paused restructuring plans for more than a dozen authorities following fresh legal advice.

Local Government Secretary Angela Rayner told MPs that the reorganisation in Surrey, where councillors for two new unitary authorities were elected in May, will not be affected by the review.

Liberal Democrat and Conservative politicians have called for the legal advice to be published and also for more detail to be provided to discover whether there is any potential impact for the new East and West Surrey councils.

In October 2025, the former Secretary of State for Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, Steve Reed, wrote to council leaders confirming the end of the existing councils in Surrey in 2027.

The leader of West Surrey Council, Paul Follows told BBC Radio Surrey he has "serious questions about how legal and robust" the original decision was.

"It's extremely disappointing," he said.

"Many of us said it was a faulty process, and something that sensible people should take their time to think about, particularly considering Surrey's issues with debt."

Councillor Steve Wotton, Leader of East Surrey Council, said they "remain confident that reorganisation will create stronger, more sustainable local government and help us deliver better outcomes for local people."

Leader of the West Surrey Conservative Group, councillor Jane Austin, described it as "a shambolic U-turn from Labour."

"The Government should now publish the legal advice underpinning its decision, so councils and residents can understand exactly what has changed," she said.

"Surrey must not be disadvantaged financially or operationally simply because we went first."

Several Liberal Democrat MPs have also criticised the government and called for the legal advice to be published.

In the Commons, Guildford MP, Zöe Franklin, said that councils had been "forced down a reorganisation route that now appears to be effectively abandoned by the Government and questionable on a legal basis."

Surrey Heath MP, Dr Al Pinkerton, said Surrey had been left in "an experimental cohort with a sample size of one, the one county being reorganised under this legislation" and described the process as a "rollercoaster with no known destination and...with legally slightly shonky rails"

Monica Harding in Esher and Walton asked about the "legal implications for Surrey", while Helen Maguire in Epsom and Ewell said the county is "being treated as the test case for something the Government won't legally back anywhere else in England."

Rayner told MPs the changes are "not an experiment" and about "working with local areas to deliver local services and improve on them" and that "the review does not include the reorganisation of Surrey."

"Councillors have been elected already, and the new councils go live on 1 April 2027.

"I hope that Surrey, with the two new unitary councils, will be able to deliver across the area on vital services, like adult social care, transport and those good services that people want to see across their area, and I will work with them to deliver that."

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