There has been widespread reporting, including in The Times and on BBC News that in some areas, local elections scheduled for May 2025 may be postponed. Some outlets have speculated about the number of areas, and which ones, will be affected.
No decisions have been taken on postponing elections in specific areas. Elections this year will be going ahead as planned and we will only consider postponing elections for areas where the council concerned have requested it, and where after careful consideration, it will help an area to deliver reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeline.
This is a well-established precedent, including in the cases of North Yorkshire, Cumbria and Somerset elections, and Buckinghamshire district councils elections, under the previous government when reorganisation happened there.
Councils will follow their own relevant processes or votes before any requests are made to postpone elections and they have until Friday 10 January to request a postponement.
Once the deadline passes, we will review all requests and provide an update to the affected areas in the near future. Until then we cannot speculate on which councils have or haven’t requested a postponement.