Update - Government decision announced (25 March 2026)
The Government has now published its decision on local government reorganisation in Norfolk. The Secretary of State has confirmed that the proposal for three new unitary councils (link to letter) will proceed, replacing the existing two‑tier system. These will be West Norfolk Council, Greater Norwich Council, and East Norfolk Council. The Government has indicated that it will make some boundary adjustments to deliver this model, though the detailed changes will be set out later through the Structural Changes Order. Work will now move into the implementation phase, with further guidance to be issued to Chief Executives on transitional arrangements, elections, and next steps.
Background to devolution and Local Government reorganisation in Norfolk
The English Devolution White Paper (opens new window), published on 16 December 2024, outlines the UK Government's plans to extend devolution across England. Their goal is to empower local leaders and communities to drive growth and improve living standards. This includes reorganising local government across England.
To achieve this, the government established the Devolution Priority Programme to quickly create Mayoral Combined Authorities or Mayoral Combined County Authorities for areas ready to come together over sensible geographies that met the criteria set out in the White Paper.
While the Mayor of London was established in 2000, this new process of English devolution that the government is furthering began in 2014 and include Manchester, Liverpool and the West Midlands. However, the Devolution White Paper is the first time the Government has said that they expect every area in England to have a mayor and a new Strategic Authority.
Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils submitted an application in January to be part of the priority programme, which was confirmed by the government (opens new window).
The Government ran a public consultation on devolution across these new areas, including Norfolk and Suffolk, in February 2025. This was open for comments until 13 April 2025. The results are available on the UK Government website.
You can read the council's draft response to the Norfolk and Suffolk devolution consultation (opens new window) as outlined in the report to the council on 20 March.
The Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution then wrote on 5 February issuing a statutory invitation to all councils in two-tier areas like Norfolk (opens new window) to develop unitary proposals. These proposals were to be designed to bring together lower and upper-tier local government services in new unitary councils' structures and submitted to government by the deadline set of 21 March.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council officers, along with officers from all Norfolk borough, city and district, councils worked together to develop Norfolk's proposals. The councils undertook a combined procurement exercise to contract Deloitte LLP to produce an independent, objective and evidence-based options analysis in line with the Government's requirements. This finished report, produced by Deloitte, identified the likely options for local government reorganisation that will deliver high-quality and sustainable public services and scored them against the guidance. Their report was then published and debated at each of the Norfolk councils.
The six councils then worked with Inner Circle Consulting to finalise a submission which was approved at full council meetings by each of the six councils and submitted to Government on 26 September. You can read the submissions on the Future Norfolk People Place Progress website.
The government then launched a public consultation on 19 November 2025 that closed on 11 January 2026. The council's response as a statutory consultee can be found here. The government's decision on local government reorganisation in Norfolk is expected in March.
