Decision - Local Government Reorganisation

Brighton and Hove Cabinet Decided 25 Sep 2025 approved Key decision GET /api/coverage

Decision maker

Cabinet

Report author

Elizabeth Culbert

Published

26 Sep 2025

Reference

7499

As published

the council's own words, unedited

This report will ask Cabinet to decide on Brighton & Hove City Council's preferred option for local government reorganisation in East Sussex and Brighton and to agree the submission to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

That Cabinet 1) Agrees the Final Proposal: 'Representative Councils for a Devolved Sussex: A Five Unitary Proposal' as set out at Appendix 1 and approves its submission to the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by 26 September 2025. 2) Delegates authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Leader of the Council, to make any final adjustments to the Final Proposal before the deadline for submission.

Parsed from the document

gpt-5.6-luna-2026-07-09 · 33488/2735 tokens · 20009ms · parsed 8 Sep 2026 11:43

Everything below was read out of a PDF by a model It is useful and it is not authoritative. The document it came from is linked in the rail, and where the two disagree the document is right.

The submission proposes replacing the existing two-tier local government system across Sussex with five new unitary councils, each serving approximately 300,000 to 400,000 residents. It asks the Secretary of State to modify the statutory whole-district baseline so that boundaries better reflect travel, service and community patterns, while retaining parish and town councils and protecting continuity of services.

Recommendation

That the Secretary of State consider and approve the requested ministerial modification to create five balanced unitary councils for Sussex, and that the proposal proceed to statutory consultation and assessment alongside other Sussex options.

Financial impact

Estimated recurring net benefits of approximately £52.4 million per year at steady state, with estimated one-off implementation costs of £167.7 million to £197.2 million for the five-unitary option; approximately £48 million of reserves are planned to be appropriated in 2025/26 across Sussex councils.

Ward affected

city-wide

Decision maker

Brighton & Hove City Council and Sussex principal authorities

Stakeholders named

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Residents and communities across SussexBrighton & Hove City CouncilEast Sussex councilsWest Sussex councilsParish and town councilsNHS SussexSussex PoliceSchools, colleges and universitiesVoluntary and community organisationsBusinesses and employersThe Sussex Mayor and Mayoral Strategic AuthorityMinistry of Housing, Communities and Local GovernmentLocal Government Boundary Commission for England

Next steps

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Submit the five-unitary proposal to the Secretary of State and MHCLG.
Invite statutory consultation across Sussex so the options can be compared side by side.
Government to assess the proposals against the six statutory criteria.
If approved, Government may make a Structural Changes Order.
Establish shadow arrangements from April 2027, subject to Government decisions.
Move to vesting of the new councils from April 2028, subject to consultation and ministerial decision.
Arrange interim elections and a subsequent Local Government Boundary Commission for England electoral review.
Develop transition, service-continuity, financial-assurance and council-tax-harmonisation arrangements.

Precedents

not built

"Decided elsewhere" is not built Finding the same decision in other councils needs semantic matching over decision text, which is part of the search rewrite. Until then, the council's own decisions list is the way through.