Invitations to submit proposals for unitary local government in Cumbria, North Yorkshire and Somerset

These invitations ask councils in these 3 areas to develop and submit locally-led proposals for how they want to restructure local government in their area to establish unitary local government. This would mean moving from a two-tier system of county and district councils, to a system where there is a single tier for any given area.

The Secretary of State for MHCLG will carefully consider any proposals he receives, assessing them on the basis of the longstanding criteria for establishing unitary councils, namely that if a unitary proposal is to be implemented it must be likely to improve local government in the area, command a good deal of local support overall across the area, and lead to unitary councils covering a credible geography.