The Government has today advised Cambridgeshire County Council that it has not yet been able to make a decision on Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Last year, the Government set out clear criteria for reorganisation proposals, including improving service delivery, strengthening local accountability and ensuring long‑term financial sustainability for future councils. We believe that there were clear, locally developed options that met these criteria, which would have enabled Government to decide.
By delaying their decision, Government prolongs the current period of uncertainty, and this creates increased risk about the achievability of the Government’s self-imposed timescale and, in doing so, potentially forces that same risk of failure upon the seven Councils by expecting them to still deliver reorganisation by April 2028.
Leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, Councillor Lucy Nethsingha, said: “I am deeply disappointed that a decision for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough has been delayed, rather than selecting one of the locally developed LGR options that clearly met the Government’s own criteria.
"I also have major concerns that this delay will create a prolonged period of wholly unnecessary level of risk and complexity at a time when our residents and council workers deserve clarity about the future.
"We will want to reflect carefully on this and consider our options”
She added: “Whilst I am deeply disappointed, I am not particularly surprised by this news. This Government has once again demonstrated an inability to make decisions or deliver on time and has, instead, been mired in the chaos of replacing the Prime Minister, all of which have serious impacts upon decision making by Government.
"Shunting this decision to an as yet undetermined point in the future leaves all seven councils across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in limbo and will leave less time for the existing councils to deliver a safe transition.
"Although we are extremely frustrated by this wholly unnecessary delay, we will continue to work closely with the other six councils in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and will retain our focus upon ensuring high quality services for our residents and communities.”
