Central government confirmed its plans for the future of local government in Nottinghamshire on 16 July 2026.
On 7 September central government announced that it will be undertaking a review of the Local Government Reorganisation (LGR) programme nationally. Government confirmed that it is still committed to LGR but outlined that decisions relating to four LGR areas will be ‘withdrawn’, and that a further 14 areas, including Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, will be ‘paused’ while a review is carried out. Read more on the news page.
The government had initially confirmed its decision in a letter to Chief Executives. It had been decided to implement the proposal brought forward by Nottingham City Council which would replace the nine existing Nottingham and Nottinghamshire councils and create two, single-tier unitary councils.
The proposed two new councils were;
An address checker is available to help residents identify which unitary authority their address would fall within when they are established.
In the short term, there will be no change to existing services. All services currently delivered by the nine affected councils will continue as normal.
LGR proposals* were submitted to central government in November 2025. A government-led statutory consultation took place between February and March 2026. This was followed by visits to Nottinghamshire by officials from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government ahead of the decision. The results of the statutory consultation are available on the government website.
The map above shows you the make up of the two new unitary councils.
Work will now begin on the transition towards the creation of the two new unitary councils. Elections for these new unitary councils will take place in May 2027. This will create two shadow authorities ahead of the new councils being formally established in April 2028. These elections will replace local elections.
Any final decision on the future options must receive parliamentary approval before they can be implemented.
A spokesperson for all nine councils said:
"The government has announced its preferred option for local government reorganisation. All nine councils have worked hard to meet the deadlines set by central government and to provide submissions that we believe are best for the residents we serve.
“We will continue to work together to ensure services continue and that residents and businesses remain our priority.
“We want to reassure everyone that this will not affect the day-to-day running of your local council, our services will continue and we are working closely with the thousands of staff who are coming on this LGR journey with us. The work has only just begun, and we can now start the work of transitioning to be ready by April 2028."
*Two other proposals were submitted, one by Nottinghamshire County Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council, the other by Bassetlaw District Council, Gedling Borough Council, Mansfield District Council and Newark and Sherwood District Council. Ashfield District Council did not express a preference between the options, and Broxtowe Borough Council decided not to support any of the proposals and requested that the LGR process be paused to enable more detailed consideration.
The government has confirmed that a number of ministerial decisions on its national LGR programme have been ‘withdrawn’ as part of a wider review.
In Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, the government has confirmed that Local Government Reorganisation will continue, with a new decision to be made by early 2027, based on the proposals already submitted and assessed against the original criteria.
