Local government reorganisation and devolution
In December 2024, the government set out plans for how they’d like to move powers from central to local government across England. They call this ‘devolution’.
The government aim to simplify the way local government works by:
- Creating unitary councils: These would be single councils responsible for all local government services within a particular area.
- Ensuring councils are a suitable size to be efficient and effective.
This means all your services are delivered by one council, instead of between the county, city and district and borough councils.
Staffordshire currently has 10 councils – Staffordshire County Council, Stoke on Trent City Council, and our eight district and borough councils.
We are proposing to reorganise into two new councils – East and West Staffordshire.
The Decision
A proposal for two unitary councils: north and south using existing district and borough boundaries
Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Stafford Borough Council, Cannock Chase District Council and East Staffordshire Borough Council are proposing two new unitary councils across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent.
This proposal would see:
- a new northern council serve Newcastle-under-Lyme, Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Moorlands. This is 494,803 people.
- a new southern council would serve Stafford, East Staffordshire, Cannock Chase, Lichfield, Tamworth and South Staffordshire. This is 682,775 people.