Councillors fear Devon reorganisation may slip after Westminster changes

Devon councillors are calling for clarity amid fears that the government’s plans to shut them down are descending into ’disarray’.

Keir Starmer’s recent cabinet reshuffle, and the departure of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, have left a question mark over the timetable for plans to re-shape local government across the country.

In Devon, that will mean scrapping the county council, all eight of its district councils and possibly Exeter City Council too. They will be replaced by unitary authorities such as the ones operating in Plymouth and Torbay now.

Exeter wants to become a unitary council in its own right, Torbay and Plymouth want to keep their own unitary status and the districts favour a ‘1-4-5’ approach with Plymouth standing alone and the rest of the county covered by two large unitaries, one comprising West Devon, South Hams, Torbay and Teignbridge and the other Torridge, North Devon, Mid Devon, Exeter and East Devon.

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Teignbridge Council leader Richard Keeling (Lib Dem, Chudleigh) told a meeting of the council’s executive committee: “I have asked for clarification of exactly what is happening, because the residents of Devon want to know, as well as the councillors who want to know whether they’re in a job next year.”

Angela Rayner was one of the main drivers of the local government reorganisation plans, as was local government minister Jim McMahon, who was also replaced in the reshuffle.

Cllr Keeling said he had been in many meetings with Mr McMahon, and he had been very clear on the direction the process would take.

“Now we find that this has been changed,” he said. “There seems to be some disarray over the direction we should be going in.

“We need some clarification.”

At a meeting in Torquay earlier this week Torbay’s Liberal Democrat MP Steve Darling also warned that the reshuffle and other priorities might mean the reorganisation of town halls slipping down the list of priorities.

“I wonder if it might slip because there are more important issues for the body politic in Westminster,” he said.

As the timetable stands at the moment, council submissions will go to the government at the end of November. After the decision is announced in mid-2026 there will be elections to a new ‘shadow’ authority in May 2027, with those elected councillors taking over a new-shape Devon in May 2028.