07/09/2026
VERY GOOD NEWS FOR HAMPSHIRE 🌳
The Government has today WITHDRAWN its decision on Local Government Reorganisation in Hampshire and the Solent.
This is, quite simply, the best possible outcome at this stage.
And the timing could hardly be more appropriate. As I write, campaigners from New Forest Together are at Parliament presenting their petition against the proposals to split the New Forest.
What a day for them to be there.
Thousands upon thousands of people have backed their campaign to Keep the New Forest Together. Communities elsewhere in Hampshire have also made very clear that they did not want historic communities carved up simply to make an imposed reorganisation model work.
At Hampshire County Council we challenged the Government’s decision for another, equally important, reason.
We launched Judicial Review proceedings because the Government had failed to provide satisfactory answers about the evidence behind its decision and, particularly, the financial sustainability of the new councils it proposed creating.
We were repeatedly told that pursuing legal action was unnecessary and a waste of money.
Today rather emphatically demonstrates why we believed it was necessary.
Following updated legal advice, the new Secretary of State has withdrawn the Hampshire decision and ordered a review of Local Government Reorganisation.
That does NOT mean I believe nothing should change.
I have always said that this is not about preserving existing councils. It is about getting what replaces them right.
The previous proposals risked splitting established communities, transferring major areas of economic growth and business-rate income between authorities and leaving behind councils whose long-term financial sustainability was, in my view, deeply questionable.
Getting that wrong could have cost Hampshire taxpayers tens or hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade and meant less money for the services people actually rely upon.
We now have the opportunity to start again.
I hope Government will allow Hampshire and the Solent’s councils to come together, with proper time and proper evidence, to develop a solution which is properly costed, financially sustainable and commands much broader support.
And I am particularly delighted today for everyone involved with New Forest Together.
They organised, campaigned, collected tens of thousands of signatures and refused to accept that splitting their community was inevitable.
To be standing in Parliament presenting that petition on the very day the decision they have fought against is withdrawn is quite something.
Well done to them. 👏🌳
Now we need to work together to get whatever comes next right.
