Devon County Council leaders are demanding answers from the Government over stalled plans for local government reorganisation, arguing the money spent on the process could be better used for frontline services.

Last month, national plans, including proposals to replace Devon’s two-tier local government structure with four unitary authorities from April 2028, were suspended by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) following the threat of legal action from councils nationwide.

Since then, the county council has been seeking clarity and has also applied for a judicial review of the Devon proposals, which will be triggered if they are resubmitted in their original form.

Approximately £2.1 million has been spent by the county council in connection with the reorganisation, while full implementation could cost an estimated £100 million.

An FOI response has also revealed that work to prepare for the reorganisation has been paused, including projects covering economic analysis and the consolidation of data from participating councils.

Consultancy firm KPMG had been commissioned to help establish a shared financial baseline for Devon and develop a data hub covering 14 priority datasets. The council said the work had been suspended following the Government’s announcement on September 7, with no expected completion date or next milestone.

The council confirmed that it had not produced, commissioned or begun preparing a combined economic baseline. Work on a financial baseline had started but remained incomplete.

County Council Leader Julian Brazil said he would prefer to work constructively with Whitehall to drive service improvement and growth instead of taking the matter to court.

He said: “We welcome the fact that the Government has chosen to accelerate devolution and look again at Local Government Reorganisation. The government’s proposals for Devon would have introduced a model which was unworkable, unpopular, and threatened to derail enormous progress we’ve made in supporting young people.

“Implementation of these proposals would have cost around £100m, which instead should be invested in frontline services. We’ve already been forced to spend nearly £2 million on responding to the original proposals.

“Local government delivers many of the day-to-day services that our residents rely on, especially the most vulnerable. Creating areas on maps and then trying to force services to fit those geographies is absolutely the wrong approach.

“I want us to work with Government and district councils, health bodies and the private sector to invest our energy and funds into rewiring Devon. If we can get these basics right first, then economic growth will follow. It doesn’t work the other way round.”