Elections for newly-created mayors will be delayed in four more areas of England, the BBC has confirmed, pushing back regional devolution plans.
New mayors were expected to be elected in Greater Essex, Norfolk & Suffolk, Hampshire & the Solent, and Sussex & Brighton in May next year, but will now have to wait until May 2028.
The government is expected to argue that more time is needed to reorganise local government in these areas.
But opposition parties are calling for the elections to go ahead as planned, with shadow local government secretary Sir James Cleverly accusing Labour of “subverting democracy”.
Back in February, then Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced “ambitious” plans for six new areas of regional devolution, where councils would join forces to create combined authorities, led by new mayors.
The new DPPs were intended to provide “sweeping” powers for councils to fast-track growth in regions outside London and, at the time, the government said the new positions would be created “at pace”.
Now, all six of those new devolution priority programme (DPP) areas have announced they will delay their mayoral elections, originally planned for May 2026.
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) announced the first mayoral election in Cumbria had been pushed back a year in July, with councils saying combining the mayoral with planned local elections in 2027 would “save significant resources”.
Cheshire & Warrington followed suit in September, pushing back its first mayoral election from to May 2027 to fit in with full council elections beinhg held at the same time.
A formal announcement is expected later, and the government will argue that the areas need more to time to complete their local government reorganisation, which maintain the existing councils but see them working together on decisions impacting the entire county or regional area.
The body representing district councils warned at the time that the plans could spark “turmoil” and argued “mega-councils” could undermine local decision-making.
Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice called the move a “deliberate, dictatorial cancelling of democracy”.
“There is just a fear of how successful Reform are doing, they’ve been talking about these mayoral elections for years and years, they’ve been getting ready,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
Meanwhile, Liberal Democrat local government spokesperson Zoe Franklin said the party would work to see the vote next May does go ahead, adding, “democracy delayed is democracy denied”.
And the Conservative candidate for Hampshire and the Solent called the decision to delay them a “disgrace and an affront to democracy”.
“It is clear Labour are afraid to face the British public at the ballot box,” Donna Jones said.
