Harlow Council has responded to a government request for councils to assess whether they have the capacity to continue operating effectively and run elections during Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).
LGR is a government-led change that will completely restructure local councils. In Harlow, this means moving from two councils (Harlow Council and Essex County Council) to a single new unitary authority covering a wider area than Harlow, but a smaller area than the current Essex County Council. This decision was made by the Government, and councils do not have the power to prevent or stop it.
Many parts of England have already gone through LGR, including throughout Buckinghamshire, Cumbria, Dorset, Northamptonshire, North Yorkshire and Somerset between 2019 and 2022. In every one of these areas, the Government cancelled local elections in the year immediately before the new unitary authority was created.
Only the Government can cancel or postpone local elections. Councils and councillors do not have this power.
The Government asked councils to assess whether they could continue delivering services, major projects and reorganisation work at the same time as running elections.
In Harlow, residents are already scheduled to vote in 2027 for a new shadow unitary authority, in 2028 for a Mayor and Combined Authority, and in 2029 at the next General Election. The most recent Harlow Council election took place in May 2024, when all 33 councillors were elected, apart from one by-election in 2025.
As a result, no councillor in Harlow has yet served two years in office. If the May 2026 elections were postponed by the Government, no councillor’s term would be extended beyond the normal four-year term. Even if the council continued until its proposed abolition in 2028, current councillors would have served no more than three years.
If elections went ahead in May 2026, only 11 council seats would be contested. However, running the election would still create the same disruption and pressure on council resources as a full election, at a critical time just before the new shadow unitary authority is formed. It would also mean electing councillors to a council that is due to be abolished shortly afterwards.
The Government asked councils to consider whether the same capacity challenges that applied in previous reorganisations also apply now.
Harlow Council has concluded that, given it is delivering the largest regeneration programme of any district council in the UK and leading a once-in-a-generation renewal of the town, the concurrent delivery of Local Government Reorganisation alongside elections for a third of the council would place significant and irrefutable demands on organisational focus and resources, particularly when residents will shortly be voting for an entirely new council. For these reasons, the council believes the same approach should be taken as in every other area that has already undergone reorganisation.
Over 30 councils undergoing LGR have responded in the same way to the Government. The Government is expected to make a decision on the postponement of elections in the next few weeks.
Read the council's full response to the Government.