Local government reorganisation and devolution

The government has outlined plans for both devolution and the reorganisation of local government. This follows the publication of the English Devolution White Paper.

Devolution and the reorganisation of local government are two different things.

Local government reorganisation

Local government reorganisation is separate from devolution, but links with the government's overall aims. The government wants all areas to have unitary councils across the country, with each serving a minimum of 500,000 residents. Each area has until the autumn to submit detailed proposals.

Sussex has been accepted onto the devolution priority programme, and so the proposed timeline is for the unitary authorities to be ready to go live in 2028.

As part of our work to develop an interim plan, all those involved will consider several factors such as population sizes (now and in the future), how people work, live and commute, economic and commercial opportunities in the area and the local job and skills markets.

The future of local government is very much about getting the balance right for communities, ensuring new councils cover diverse areas, provide opportunities, understand their challenges and can help us move forward into a more positive future.

Your views are important

It is essential that your voice is heard as we navigate the Local Government Reorganisation process. We will soon be sharing a survey for you to complete. Your views will help shape the future of West Sussex. As soon as the survey launches, we will post the link here and share it on our other channels too.

Devolution explained

Devolution involves introducing strategic authorities across England, each with an elected mayor, so that government can hand more powers down from Whitehall. Elected mayors will oversee areas representing two or more current county council geographical areas and will be handed more power over things such as strategic housing and planning, transport, environment, business and research, and public safety. A strategic authority would represent a population size of at least 1.5 million residents.

In December, the government invited county and unitary (upper tier) authorities to submit bids for devolution by 10 January 2025 to secure a place on their priority programme (like a fast track scheme). West Sussex County Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Hove Council requested to create a strategic authority based on their combined footprint, which covers around 1.7 million residents.

The government approved this proposal for the devolution priority programme and consulted with residents and businesses (consultation closed on 13 April 2025). The aim was to agree on the new strategic authority by September 2025, followed by Mayoral elections, which will take place in May 2026.

Next steps

Regardless of what happens, we are focusing on 'business as usual' and want you to know that delivering our services to you will be our priority, and we will make the transition as smooth as possible. For us, this is not just about lines on a map and the number of residents within those lines. Supporting and shaping our communities and the people within them remains important.

We will keep you updated as we receive more information and learn more about what will happen. We realise you will have questions and hope that the following topics help. We will keep these updated as we go through the process ahead of us. This is a rapidly changing situation and the information here is based on what we know right now and is subject to change.

As we move through the process, Arun District Council will cease to exist. What the new council will look like, we don't yet know and will share updates when we have more information. What we do know is that despite how the council will look in the future and the changes we must go through in the process, we commit to serving our residents and communities.

The devolution and local government reorganisation will not change the structure of Parish and town councils, and they will remain the same as they are. They will have a bigger role to play in local community engagement and may take on more responsibilities.