The government set out plans in December 2024 which would see all the district, borough, county and city councils in Staffordshire abolished and be replaced with larger unitary authorities. This is part of wider plans for Devolution. You can see more about this from the English Devolution White paper.

What ‘Devolution’ is

It would see a shift of powers from central to local and regional government. And this will involve reorganising the way your local council works.

Elected Mayor

The government want ‘strategic authorities’ created - which would be groups of local councils working together to cover larger areas. And they want to see elected Mayors leading these new ‘strategic authorities'.

The elected Mayor would have more control over how money was spent locally, and greater powers over key areas such as housing, transport and economic development. Mayoral-led strategic authorities can expect more funding from central government.

Local Government Reorganisation

It will see an end to current ‘two-tier’ authorities. At the moment Stafford Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council deliver different services and functions to our communities.

For example, SBC is responsible for the household waste collection service, planning, and parks. Whereas Staffordshire County Council deals with education, roads and social care.

The new unitary council would be responsible for all local government services within their area.

Next Steps

The Government has invited Councils to submit proposals setting out what would work best in their area. Initial proposals have been submitted - with final business cases due by 28 November 2025.

You can see what Stafford Borough Council is proposing from the Extraordinary Council report (pdf 846kb) which was agreed by councillors on Tuesday (18 March).

In brief, for Staffordshire it is proposed to have:

• A Mayoral Strategic Authority that covers the whole of Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent; and
• Two unitary councils.

Our interim proposal (pdf 436kb) was submitted to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government on behalf of Stafford Borough, Cannock Chase District, East Staffordshire Borough, Lichfield District, South Staffordshire District and Tamworth Borough councils on Friday 21 March. And you can read the press release on this issued on behalf of the six Southern and Mid Staffordshire Councils.

We will be engaging with local communities and partners before a final business case is submitted.

The new unitary councils for Staffordshire are due to go live in 2028.