In December 2024, the government published the English Devolution White Paper. This outlined its plans for transferring more powers from national government to local areas. This is called devolution. Devolution will be achieved by creating strategic authorities with elected mayors.
Councils across the country were invited to be one of the first strategic authorities as part of the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme. Kent and Medway put forward a bid to be part of this programme but were not selected.
Local Government Reorganisation
The White Paper also included the government’s plans for simpler council structures, with residents served by just one local council (known as a ‘unitary council’). This is known as Local Government Reorganisation (LGR).
Kent currently has two layers of local government. Kent County Council looks after some services (like education, highways, libraries, children’s services and social care) and the 12 borough and district councils (including Dartford Borough Council) deliver the other local services (such as planning, waste collection, parks and open spaces, housing, environmental health, licensing and council tax). This two tier structure will be replaced with a single unitary council that will provide all of the services listed above, to a population of around 500,000.
The government has asked all two tier areas to work up proposals for moving to unitary councils. Interim proposals were submitted by the Kent authorities on March 21, 2025, with detailed proposals due to be sent to government by November 28, 2025.