To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she plans to take to merge (a) the 8 Devon districts and (b) Devon County Council into unitary councils with Torbay and Plymouth.
Answered on
10 January 2025
Following the publication of the English Devolution White Paper on the 16 December, I wrote to all councils where there is a two-tier structure of local government and to their neighbouring unitary councils, to set out further details on the Government's ambitions for local government reorganisation. Within that letter I set out my intention “to formally invite unitary proposals in January 2025 from all councils in two-tier areas, and small neighbouring unitary councils.”