House Of Lords Committee Raises Election Postponement Concerns

A House of Lords committee has raised concerns connected with the postponement of county council elections in East Sussex.

On Thursday (February 27), the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee of the House of Lords published a report connected with the postponement of elections for East Sussex County Council and eight other local authorities as part of the government’s devolution programme.

In the report, the committee said the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) “should have” offered a response to the “considerable opposition” to the proposals, as part of its tabling of a statutory instrument intended to enact the postponement.

The report reads:

“While there is precedent for postponing local elections in the context of facilitating the reorganisation of local government and devolution, the government acknowledges that this order enables such postponements on a larger scale than on previous occasions and that there is considerable opposition to the policy.

“Given that questions and concerns have been raised about the government’s approach, including about the democratic mandate and level of local support and consultation, the MHCLG should have addressed these specific concerns in the [order’s] explanatory memorandum.

“We note the government’s view that it is ‘for councils to decide how best to engage locally in a meaningful and constructive way’ on proposals for local government reorganisation, and that the Secretary of State must undertake a statutory consultation before deciding which proposals to implement.

“The house may wish to explore further with the minister how the views of local residents will be sought and taken into account in future stages of the process.”

The government’s devolution programme involves plans to create both new mayoral authorities with powers devolved from Westminster and (in the longer term) new unitary authorities in areas which currently operate under a two-tier system of district/borough councils and county councils.

Announcing the proposals in December, the government had said it would consider postponing local elections in cases where doing so would “help the area to deliver both reorganisation and devolution to the most ambitious timeframe”.

In light of this, in January, East Sussex County Council made a formal request for its elections to be postponed as a part of its bid to join a devolution fast track programme. This request was accepted, along with similar requests from eight other local authorities, leading the government to table the statutory instrument considered by the committee.#

This statutory instrument — the Local Authorities (Changes to Years of Ordinary Elections) (England) Order 2025 — will initially postpone the elections for one year (moving from May 2025 to May 2026), although critics say further postponement is expected in future years as well.
While the postponement is due to come into force next Tuesday (March 4), it is possible it could be overturned as a result of upcoming parliamentary motions.

Such a motion, known as a prayer to annul, has been tabled by Green Party peer Jennifer Jones and is due for debate in the House of Lords on Thursday, March 27. Lady Jones’s motion calls for the statutory instrument to be annulled on the grounds “it damages the democratic accountability of local authorities to local residents, and has not been subject to full and proper consultation.”

On the same day, the House of Lords is also due to debate a prayer of regret tabled by Conservative peer Jane Scott. Lady Scott’s motion sets out the same concerns, but stops short of calling for the postponement to be overturned.

The government is currently undertaking a public consultation on the programme for devolution, including for Sussex. It is open until April 13. For further information see: www.gov.uk/government/consultations/sussex-and-brighton-devolution