Local Government Re-organisation – Interim Proposals

In December 2024 Jim McMahon, Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution, invited all councils in two-tier areas and their small neighbouring unitary authorities to work together to develop proposals for reorganisation. He requested interim plans by Friday 21 March to contain updates on thinking in areas about their options for creating new unitary councils.

On the population size, the guidance was clear that new councils must be the right size to achieve efficiencies, improve capacity and withstand financial shocks. As set out in the English Devolution White Paper, they outlined a population size of 500,000 or more, as a guiding principle.

Two proposals have been submitted for Derbyshire.

1. Joint proposal submitted by the 8 District and Borough Councils, along with Derby City Council. This proposal is for the creation of two authorities, a “Northern Derbyshire” and a “Southern Derbyshire”.The “north” would include the residents of Derbyshire Dales, High Peaks, Chesterfield, North East Derbyshire and Bolsover.The “south” would include the residents of Derby City, Southern Derbyshire and Erewash.The residents of Amber Valley would be given the option of which of the new authorities that they join.This proposal would result in two authorities of roughly equal size.
2. The Derbyshire County Council proposal is that they be merged with the 8 Districts and Boroughs to create what they refer to as a “single Derbyshire” solution. This is actually quite confusing it ignores Derby City Council, which under this proposal would remain as an independent Unitary Authority, so this would also be a “two authority” solution, though one would have around 811,000 residents, whilst the other (Derby City) would a population of 270,000.

Officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government are set to review the interim proposals before final proposals are submitted by the deadline of 28th November 2025.

Any changes that are agreed for Derbyshire are likely to be implemented in 2027 or 2028.