Warwickshire's council shake-up has been put on hold with plans for the 2027 local elections up in the air.

Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government Angela Rayner MP (Lab) announced in parliament that the implementation of local government reorganisation across 18 councils areas, including Warwickshire, would be put on hold to consider whether they are legally sound.

It comes as authorities threaten judicial reviews of the government's decisions on what unitary council footprints should look like, including Reform UK-led Kent County Council.

Warwickshire is one of a minority of council patches where the main services are overseen by two levels of local government – county councils for the biggest items like education, social care and highways and district and borough councils for planning, bin collections and the collection of council tax.

The government wants all two-tier areas to move to unitary councils that deliver those services from a single authority and it decided that Warwickshire should have two unitaries, one to cover the boroughs of Rugby, North Warwickshire and Nuneaton & Bedworth in the north and a second to cover the districts of Stratford-on-Avon and Warwick in the south.

Warwickshire County Council's professionals and Reform UK politicians had made the case for one single county-wide unitary and while that option was rejected, it could now be back in play as part of Ms Rayner's review.

She told parliament on Monday (September 7): "I want to be clear on how critical this is to me given how important (councils) are to our democracy and the services they provide for local people.

"There will always be a wide range of divergent views which means achieving perfect consensus will never be possible. I understand that feelings run high and people naturally have strong views but in different directions.

"In that context, in light of legal advice, I want to satisfy myself firstly that the right process is in place, that it is robust and of course complies with the law.

"Secondly, I want to fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of the new administration and a new prime minister plus any additional considerations."

Warwickshire and neighbouring counties like Worcestershire and Oxfordshire will be part of the "full review" with Ms Rayner stating that she has asked council's working towards go-live dates of April 2028 for the new authorities to "pause".

"I do not take this lightly. I recognise the huge amount of work that has already gone into progressing reorganisation in each of these areas and I am very grateful for it," she continued.

"I know many members of the house and many council leaders will have lots of questions about what this means for them and their communities."

She stated it would be a "rapid review" and insisted that local elections in May 2027 "will go ahead on existing council boundaries" – meaning that four out of Warwickshire's five district and borough councils would head to the polls.

However, a little doubt was cast on that during questions from other MPs with Ms Rayner saying: "Local elections scheduled to take place to existing councils in May 2027 will go ahead unless we are in a position to hold elections to new unitary councils at that point."

She reiterated that the review would take place "as quickly as possible".

The plan was to have all-out elections in May 2027 for the two new councils.

If that doesn't happen, Warwickshire County Council will continue with the 57 councillors it elected in May 2025 as their four-year term would only be cut short by the county being abolished by local government reorganisation.

North Warwickshire Borough, Stratford-on-Avon District and Warwick District are all due for all-out elections – where every seat is contested – in 2027. Rugby Borough Council is due to elect for a third of its seats (14 out of 42) but Nuneaton & Bedworth Borough Council is not scheduled for ballots in 2027 with half of its seats decided every two years.

Sir Bernard Jenkin MP also asked whether the two-tier system could be kept, stating that was the preference in his part of Essex.

Ms Rayner leaned towards a no but stopped short of definitively ruling it out.

"We've always been really clear about making sure the split is absolutely right, so you get this scale so things like education and other areas can be delivered," she replied.

"That is why we always said we would consider those proposals and how best to deliver unitary councils in this parliament."